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Remembering Avraham Herzlich, "Father of the Hilltop Youth"

Whatever one thinks about it, it’s indisputable that The Hilltop Youth Movement is a major topic in Israeli political discourse today. Because of this, one might think that those who write about the movement would make a minimal effort to understand its origins, beliefs, and influences, but that is not always the case. Take Wikipedia, the first pla…

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8 days ago · 2 likes · True Settler

And while you’re visiting, take a moment to read what he wrote on our recent publication, Letters to a Young Shepherd.

If you don’t feel like visiting our dear friend’s blog, what can we say? — you’re a good deal poorer for the decision.

BUT…

We’ll go ahead and reproduce it below for your overall spiritual edification.

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Remembering Avraham Herzlich, “Father of the Hilltop Youth”

A new book gives advice to young Jewish shepherds from a Brooklyn born Jew

True Settler

Aug 27, 2026

Whatever one thinks about it, it’s indisputable that The Hilltop Youth Movement is a major topic in Israeli political discourse today. Because of this, one might think that those who write about the movement would make a minimal effort to understand its origins, beliefs, and influences, but that is not always the case. Take Wikipedia, the first place to learn about things for many. The Wikipedia page for ‘Hilltop Youth’, lists the leader of the movement as Meir Ettinger, a grandson of the late Rav Meir Kahane, and the spokesperson as Elisha Yered. The ideology of the hilltop movement is said to be “Kahanism”. This is, at the very best, an incomplete picture. To start with, the Hilltop Youth is a movement, an ideology perhaps, but it is not an organization. As the Wikipedia page itself admits, it is a “loosely organized, anarchy-minded group”. With all due respect to Ettinger, if anyone could be called the “leader of the Hilltop Youth, it would be Yered himself, who is deeply involved with strategizing new outposts deep into Arab occupied territory to slice at the contiguity of a putative Palestinian state¹. If anyone doubts the veracity of that statement, next time the Hilltop Youth is in the news, look at where they are located, and there’s a good chance you’ll see Yered’s fingerprints on it, if you know where to look. Tel Talpiot, near which the commotion in Qusra is happening? A Yered project. I myself was privileged to connect Yered with a donor in the US who helped finance some of his projects, and I can say, as young as he is, he works like a general, mapping out areas and sending troops in to take over territory. Even so, no one person can be said to be the leader. Regarding the specific ideology of the movement, it is true many are influenced by Harav Kahane, who radically argued that we shouldn’t have to live next to people who want us dead, and should expel them instead. However, in spite of all the credit Rav Kahane deserves, many Hilltop Youth identify strongly with Breslov or other Hassidic movements. The Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in Yitzhar for example is headed by Chabad Chasid Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg. While the Wikipedia page does mention Rav Ginsburg, it leaves out the Chasidic leanings of many Hilltop Youth, and for good reason: it would complicate the picture of Hilltop Youth as only anarchic wild youth. How could muscular takeover of land go together with spiritual pursuits²? This may seem puzzling to some people, but it makes complete sense when looking at one of the main figures who inspired so many young men to become Hilltop shepherds, Avraham Herzlich.

Letters to a Young Shepherd

A new book was recently put out recording the thoughts and beliefs of Avraham Herzlich, compiled by friend of this substack Aryeh Mordechai ben Moshe, better known as Dean Maughvet, author of “Save the Hilltop Youth” Substack. The book, titled Letters to a Young Shepherd is written in epistolary form to a young shepherd known as Y-, partially based on Aryeh himself, who wrote the book based on conversations he had with Avraham. Someone who knows the Hilltop Youth only from the headlines might be surprised to see a man like Herzlich touted as “The Father of the Hilltop Youth”. But in fact, the book adds vital context to the Hilltop Youth movement.

Fittingly enough, Avraham Herzlich was the father of Talia Kahane, wife of Binyamin Ze’ev Kahane, may God avenge their blood. Despite the familial connection, he represents a different side of the Hilltop Youth ideology. While Harav Kahane represented the militant, muscular side, Herzlich more represented the idealistic shepherding side, as can be seen from his life story (though he definitely supported their more militant actions, which will be noted later). The book is not very long, out of a total of about 90 pages, 62 or so pages are letters based on the abovementioned conversations, with another 20 pages dedicated to other articles Avraham had written, and a few pages of notes by Dean. Despite the short length of the main corpus of the book, it offers a remarkably broad look at the life and philosophy of Avraham Herzlich. At least 4 main and important themes keep recurring, firstly: basic life details of Avraham, including how he became inspired to shepherding, though some are left out due to reasons of privacy. Secondly, related to this, the Jewish philosophy on agricultural pursuits and their importance to the Jewish nation, thirdly, practical advice on shepherding and animal husbandry, and fourthly, the Torah philosophy on modern Western society, and which things we as Jews must forgo in order to create, in his words, “a Third Temple Reality”. By exploring these topics in detail, we can see just how influential Avraham was on The Hilltop Movement, and gain a greater understanding of what the movement today stands for.

The Life of Avraham Herzlich

Out of the 8 letters featured in the book, only one is primarily dedicated to giving a biography of Avraham, and a brief one at that. The book does not even say what year he was born in (1939/1940 according to this article in The Times of Israel). This is likely because the primary aim of the book is not to simply state facts about Avraham, but to showcase his philosophy. Facts about his life are given so as to show how he developed this philosophy, and thus, only select chapters of his life feature. Here are some details of his life you won’t find in the book: what year he was born in, how he met his wife, or how many children he had. Rather, the book describes his upbringing, his philosophy on finding a wife who can be a partner on the shepherding journey, or how he raised his children to love the Land of Israel. So what are the important aspects of his life, the ones essential enough to who he became as a person to be mentioned? To begin with, he grew up in Brooklyn NY, unconnected to Judaism, driving sports cars and motorcycles in his youth. But at age 23, he knew he wanted something different. This perhaps could be said to be the beginning of his life’s journey: the search for authenticity. He decided to come back to the land of his forefathers. This was in the early 1960s and although I wasn’t alive then, I assume air travel existed. But Avraham, in his quest for something genuine, decided to come by boat. In his telling, that’s real travel, where you can experience the voyage occurring, unlike air travel that goes by so quickly. Once in Israel, he took ulpan and began to study Tanach at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but soon met a man named Rabbi Shlomo Korach, who told him that to truly connect with his Jewish heritage, he must learn from the Jews of Yemen. And so Avraham travelled to the town of Rosh Ha’ayin. It was there he met a grocer who, in his telling “knew the entire Torah”. Inspired by these Jews, he went to learn at their school. Since he knew very little Torah at the time, he sat with young children in the same classroom, as remedial lessons for adults clearly were not available at the time. Though the name Herzlich does not sound at all Yemenite, Avraham adopted unto himself the identity of a Yemenite Jew, speaking Hebrew with a very deliberate Yemenite accent. It was this simplicity he saw in the Yemenite Jewish community that he desired for himself. It was this simplicity that he took directly to his next endeavor of shepherding.

Soon after arriving in Rosh Ha’ayin, Avraham had an encounter with a Bedouin shepherd in the area. Seeing the man with his flock, Avraham knew that this was the life he wanted for himself. Having made his decision, he walked barefoot from Rosh Ha’ayin to Kfar Zeitim in the Galilee. It was there that he got his experience as a shepherd, and where he finished formulating the philosophy that makes up the primary part of the book.

The Philosophy of a Shepherd

With these key details of Avraham’s life in mind, the philosophy he formulated on shepherding, closeness to God, and the so called “Third Temple Reality” should be easy to understand. To Avraham, shepherding was an integral part of the Jewish story. He pointed out that it is not a coincidence that so many of the great Jewish figures of history, the patriarchs, some of the matriarchs, as well as Moshe and David were shepherds. He spoke about the refinement of character which is built up by constantly caring for other living things. He quoted the famous midrash about how David would allow the youngest animals out to graze first, to get the softest grass, then the oldest ones, and lastly the adult, healthy animals who could handle the rougher grass.

He saw shepherding as intimately tied to the Land of Israel. So many commandments relating to our Land presuppose a largely agrarian society, with a large percentage of the Jewish people owning livestock or growing crops in their fields. He saw shepherding as an end unto itself when it came to living a more Jewish lifestyle. This is a very important point, because often the benefits of shepherding are spoken about in terms of self sufficiency and removal from a corrupt system. But even without all those added benefits, Avraham saw inherent value in the profession.

That is of course not to say he didn’t speak of the value of shepherding as a rebellion against a corrupt society. To the contrary, he speaks at length of this. In truth, the two were connected to him, because in his view, by improving oneself and attaching oneself to the noble calling of his ancestors, one in turn extricates himself from the ills of society. Almost everyone can see countless things wrong with how we live today. Avraham showed how shepherding can be an antidote to those ills, and how it can usher in what he referred to as the “Third Temple Reality”.

Third Temple Reality

The philosophy described above pointed to one final goal: the so called Third temple reality. What does this mean? Every religious Jew supposedly craves the Third Temple. We pray for it three times a day. Yet the existence of a Third Temple would necessitate not only a change in logistics to allow hundreds of thousands of Jews, at the least, to bring the Korban Pesach every year³; it would necessitate a change in our lifestyle and attitude. Avraham speaks at length about our unhealthy relationship with technology. Of course, plenty of people do; that’s nothing special. Avraham lived such a lifestyle. He didn’t own a smartphone, and even spoke of lighting candles rather than using electric lighting at night. His message was one of simplicity, and reconnecting to our ancient roots. He opposed city living, with crowded spaces and tall buildings. In this he was not so different from other Jewish thinkers throughout the years, who looked at the Torah and saw a model of small agrarian towns, not of massive cities.

He also saw that one of the greatest obstacles to this Third Temple Reality was our dependence on and “friendship” with the West, or “Esav” as he called them. He rightfully saw that their so called love for us is highly conditional. So long as we act according to their mores and beliefs, they tolerate us. But the second we want to show genuine distinctiveness, to actually defeat our enemies, or to God forbid change the holy status quo on the Temple Mount, that toleration for us dries up very quickly. For this reason, Avraham advocated forging a distinctly Jewish lifestyle and culture, revolving around simplicity and connection to the land. In an article of his published in the appendix section of the book, he made the case for the distinct Jewish dress of a shepherd. While the specific ideas he mentioned didn’t become the uniform for shepherds, it is undoubtedly true that his vision of a distinct mode of dress does exist for them.

Connecting to the Hilltop Youth of Today

It’s easy to see then, how this philosophy which he articulated contributed to the formation of today’s Hilltop youth. Avraham spoke of the lofty spiritual heights shepherding could bring a person to. Avraham advocated breaking free of the clutches of secularism and the west, and that is exactly what the hilltop youth of today are doing. While Avraham’s tactics were less “muscular”, he still spoke highly of Jewish shepherd’s taking land from the enemy. As he writes in one of the letters: “Just look at what’s happening today in your neck of the woods Y-, in the Binyamin region. Shepherds younger than yourself taking over vast tracts of land from Bedouin with nothing more than a tent and a flock! It’s miraculous! The Arabs are moving out in droves in the face of thirteen-,fourteen-and fifteen your old boys!” Some Jews still find it hard to understand how these two things go together. But such was the way of our forefather David, who was gentle with his people, but strong as wood when he went out to war.

The name Avraham Herzlich is not a well known one today. The name ‘Hilltop Youth’ invokes Harav Meir Kahane (Hyd), maybe Rebbi Nachman if someone knows a bit more about them, maybe Rav Kook or Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook or Rav Yitzchak Ginsburg or Rav Dov Lior. Yet Avraham combined the spiritual and practical aspects of shepherding in such a way as to truly merit the sobriquet “Father of the Hilltop Youth”. Lest anyone doubt his influence, I asked Elisha Yered (who needs no introduction) about his influence on the movement. “I started doing activism relatively early in my life so I wasn’t as connected to him, but almost all of the shepherds who were out in the field more were absolutely connected to him, and learned a lot from him, both from him and his students. He practically renewed shepherding in the Shomron.⁴” This man, with barely more than a shepherding staff and a Belgian shepherd, started a revolution. His name is barely known in Israel, yet his life and philosophy changed it for the better. As I mentioned before, the book is not very long, yet contains the pure essence of his life and work. I wish the book were longer, so that we could further hear the wisdom of this great man, but as I also mentioned before, some things had to be omitted.

The book can be purchased for 50 NIS (about 17 USD⁵) at this link: https://www.kodeshbook.co.il/product.asp?productid=14535, or contact Dean at savethehilltopyouth@gmail.com or at 054-641-4801.
It’s also available at POMERANZ BOOKSELLER, 5 Beeri St., Jerusalem. https://pomeranzbooks.co.il/ 02-623-5559

I encourage all my readers to buy this book, because as faithful and detailed as I tried to be, it doesn’t compare actually reading the book.
May Avraham Herzlich’s life’s work and philosophy only grow stronger.

All the best!

Dean Maughvet

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UPDATED:

Please find below purchasing information for Letters to a Young Shepherd.

And many thanks to all who’ve made their orders. Your support and patronage are greatly appreciated!

Approve or disapprove, it pays to know who they are and where they’re coming from.

And a new book on the life and thought of Avraham Herzlich accomplishes exactly that.

Avraham was modern Israel’s first and most famous shepherd. Originally tending his flock in the Galilee, he later moved to Kfar Tapuach in the Shomron, where he influenced thousands of Jews, young and old, of the supreme importance of conquering the land with large herds of goats and sheep — an idea as radical and subversive as it was transformative.

And the results are manifest today.

Consider: the hundred and twenty established farms and outposts in Yehuda and Shomron today control more territory that all of the official yeshuvim combined!

That in itself is testimony to the greatness of Avraham Herzlich.

Letters to a Young Shepherd is Avraham Herzlich’s revolutionary call to action, his worldview — his philosophy that created today’s Hilltop Youth and changed an entire generation — and is still as relevant and contagious as when he first espoused it.

1. Direct from the author: Call or Whatsapp 054-641-4801 or email savethehilltopyouth@gmail.com — 50 shekels, and FREE shipping in Israel!

2. From Pomeranz Bookseller: Be'eri St. 5, Jerusalem, Phone: 02-623-5559, pomeranzbooks.co.il

3. From Sifriat Am Yisrael: https://www.kodeshbook.co.il/product.asp?productid=14535

4. From the author’s office in Kfar Tapuach — 054-641-4801.

April 27, 2026

I’ve had a number of you inquire about the lack of regular postings for nearly a year now.

Anyway, this is the reason:

Contrary to appearances, the book is neither a mere collection of letters, nor a biography, though it does consist, in part, of both those elements.

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The following excerpt should clarify:

I’m adding a few pages from the introduction and, of course, encouraging everyone to buy a copy.

For those interested in a review copy, please email me at savethehilltopyouth@gmail.com. And be sure to say nice things.

Avraham was a close friend and, as many are aware, influenced today’s Hilltop Youth to take to the fields and conquer the land with flocks and without fear of the Arab enemy.

Here’s part of the intro:

We skip a bit of juicy content here to bring you to the end of the introduction…

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To order a copy, please click on the link here.

Or, copy and paste this address in your browser: https://www.kodeshbook.co.il/product.asp?productid=14535

BUY A COPY

The book is also available from some friendly folks in Avraham’s own Kfar Tapuach for just 50 shekels. Please email me for pick-up or delivery in the Shomron at:

Avraham was a revolutionary, and the book explains his vision and plan to forge a Third Temple Reality.

You’ll love it.

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All the best,

Dean Maughvet

(a.k.a. Aryeh Mordechai ben Moshe)

Please share this post as widely as possible. Avraham’s message couldn’t be more timely. Your efforts are genuinely appreciated.

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Just in time for the chag…

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Care of Ronnie (Kahane) Wiseman.

Music that speaks to the whole Jewish soul [click on the lion to listen].

The tip of the spear is the Hilltop Youth.

Living the Jewish Idea.

Chag sameach!

Gmar tov,

Dean Maughvet

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He of benighted knighthood, Der Stürmer, claimed yesterday in a BBC interview that the “greatest days of Britain still lie ahead of her” and the restoration of empire is not “some fanciful romantic daydream.”

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Amid reports that the UK will recognize a Palestinian state, the British head of state implied that a global Islamic caliphate, centered in London, was “not at all beyond the realm of possibility.”

“Palestine is the first step,” he said, “in our effort to appease both those at home and abroad who still view the British Isles as a bastion of colonialism and Islamophobia.

“With Palestine,” he averred, “we will set things aright!”

Taking his cue, Foreign Secretary David Lammy wasted no time in announcing £3 million… to provide midwives and emergency medical supplies for new mothers in Gaza.

“We are following the lead of our Pharaonic forebears,” said Lammy, adding: “one way or another, we will regain all our former dominions.”

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Pushback from the Jewish community was swift and robust, with one deli owner from the Midlands promising a large vat of boiling oil to turn Sir Stürmer into the world’s longest chain of knockwurst.

“Revenge, wot! For wot he said on the campaign!”

How do you like your leaders, Heinz…?

May the sun never set on the British Caliphate...

Best,

Dean Maughvet

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This brief but important podcast captures the essence of the latest “scandal” involving the Hilltop Youth.

Give it a listen.

https://israelnewstalkradio.com/ode-to-the-hilltop-youth-the-jewish-truth-bomb-audio/

CLICK THE PIC

Lenny…

The Mets?

How could you?

Dean Maughvet

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The sole purpose of the internet (and of that radiation-emitting device in your sweaty, little palm) is to make the nations of the earth aware of the awesome might of the G-d of Israel.

Yup.

And from where are they supposed to gain that awareness?

Via demonstrations of Jewish fighting prowess.

That is, when Jewish arms are successful, G-d becomes mighty in the eyes of the non-Jew.
But when Jewish warriors are less than dominant, chas v'shalom, the Al-mighty becomes in the eyes of the nations an irrelevant, nebbishe pushover.

Recently, the world was treated to but a fractional understanding of God's omnipotence.

In the space of less than two years, the destruction of Gaza, Hizb'allah, Syria and now much of Iran proved to all with eyes to see that the G-d of Israel is not to be trifled with — that “G-d is a man of war,” as the B’nei Yisrael sang over thousands of soaked Egyptian corpses.

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And yet the Israelis didn’t see it.

The Israelis remained blind.

And because they’re dopey-keen to curry favor with the goyim, and to avoid being called names — like ‘war monger’ or ‘attack happy’ or ‘vengeful’ or (chalila) ‘chosen’ — they stopped the fighting prematurely. And in so doing, they denied the world a further opportunity to witness the might of Hashem.

And so it was, the Jews, again, began to be killed.

Beersheva.

Gaza APCs.

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For the calculus of the matter is quite simple: either Jews are actively killing their enemies, or their enemies are actively killing them.

There is no stalemate and there is no 'defense' and there is no status of ‘in-between’. There is only a global awareness that G-d is an all mighty, invincible power.
Or that He's an inept nebbish.

He is King.

Or He is naught.

And so we wait until the bodies of beautiful Jews are piled high enough to activate our leaders again to begin attacking our enemies.

For that, sadly, is the calculus of the Israeli —

1. Absorb losses

2. Mourn.

3. Feel superior in one’s victimhood.

4. Contemplate retaliating.

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That said, for those of us already wise to the power of the Lord Al-mighty, there is no need for internets or their associated gadgetries.

It’s fine to put them all away.

Dean Maughvet

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For decades the zionists trumpeted to the world that they were not Jews.

Why?

Because the world hated Jews.

Killed them by the millions.

Why be part of something so despicable and reviled…?

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We’ll be something new!

We’ll be Israelis!

And now…?

The world is bending over backwards to despise and revile the Israelis — and not the Jews!

And whaddaya know… that makes the zionists exactly what they wanted to be all along — the new Jews!

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Hilarious.

Doubled over in irony,

Dean Maughvet

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With a love that could melt the polar ice caps,

Dean Maughvet

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It touches a place so deep that I'm shaken with tears every time I hear it.

For anyone whose lost a great man from his life — a father, a rabbi, a mentor or other, this'll get you to the quick.

May G-d give Yerachmiel a life that would make the Rav proud.

And may he ever heal us as he does here.

We're all better for music like this.

Dean Maughvet

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So, too, the false religions of Islam and Xtianity, with their phony gawds La-La and Please-us, will toil to pry us from our land, law and trust in Hashem, Master of Legions.

And as for the Erev Rav… well, it goes without saying.

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Our enemies boast a wide array of weapons and techniques with which to destroy us — “These trust in chariots and these in horses” — but we Jews possess a remarkable and failsafe defense: “we invoke the name of the Lord our God.”

Another Battleground Opens

Substack, too, is witness to the end of days effort to bring low the Jews and their Torah.

Here, old-fashioned antisemites, Hamas cheerleaders and the ‘modern’ logic fetishists among our people (Jews who demand proof of G-d's existence, proof of ‘special creation’, credible evidence to legitimate our faith) together comprise a tripartite alliance of hostile hominids attempting to purge G-d from the world.

And this is precisely why Hashem sent them all — and precisely at this time, too, directly before the coming of His great and awesome day: to test those of us who still believe, and to check who’ll remain steadfast in his faith.

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And this, in turn, requires us to make an internal accounting.

For, indeed, how strong is our faith and trust in our Master?

And in what, exactly, is that belief grounded?

And it's here precisely that we come face to face with the scoffers and G-d deniers.

Over a month has now passed since a gentleman named Yehuda Michaelmas sent me a direct message asking me to prove my belief in the Al-mighty.

The man is to known to me from comments on several posts as an apikoros and a somewhat craven character, but I responded nonetheless. Not with rational proofs, mind you, as he desired, but with a series of questions intended to lead the heretic back to his roots.

Alas, he declined to answer them, and therewith ended the correspondence.

I reproduce the questions below in order to assist those of an impoverished spirit and overly-rational disposition to come to an understanding of what faith is.

And what it is not.

Don’t be alarmed if, at first, they seem arbitrary or irrelevant. Yehuda Michaelmas certainly thought they were, was put off and fled — cowardly mutt that he is — may Hashem have mercy on his black and cavernous soul.

Please note, too, that they were never meant as a means of gathering evidence against or blackmailing the man.

Confidentiality was always assured.

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And now…

QUESTIONS FOR YEHUDA MICHAELMAS:

1. Are you a father?

2. If not, have you ever been with a woman?

3. Have you ever tasted pepperoni/bacon pizza?

4. Have you ever tried LSD or other hallucinogens, peyote, etc.?

5. Have you ever been to war — a hot war — and been on the receiving end of gunfire aiming to kill you?

6. Have you, yourself, ever killed a man?

7. Have you ever lost a sibling or child?

There is a distinct purpose in asking these questions, Yehuda — one that will become abundantly clear in the coming discussion.

You will now answer…

And now you ask…

What in heaven’s name?!

And we say, thank you for reading thus far.

And here's your answer —

All of the above questions refer to experiences that cannot be properly — i.e., rationally — described to the uninitiated.

That is, it's not possible to convey in words what any of the foregoing are genuinely like and expect even the most attentive reader or listener to comprehend in full, or even in part, what you’re describing, unless they've gone through them themselves.

Such is the nature of the most unique, consequential and life-changing events known to man.

They defy logical explanation.

Many, perhaps, have tried and succeeded in small measure to communicate the corresponding sense of fear, joy, pain or ecstasy of the above to a reader.

But to capture the unique essence of the experience?

With words?

Not a chance.

That said, if there's a budding Jewish Frege out there, or a Russell or a Dawkins who'd like to take a stab at it, we'd welcome the effort, by all means. But most have the sense, we believe, to concede the point.

And that brings us to faith in the Holy One, Blessed be He.

Belief in G-d is not a matter that could ever be rationally imparted to a non-believer.

The sense of G-d’s existence, of His ultimate concern for me, personally, of His guidance of my life and his constant messaging and attention to my needs, is an experience that defies explanation. It is something that I live, but could never adequately describe.

Just as a new father lives the experience of his first child coming into the world; as the soldier lives the harrowing experience of incoming bullets, lo aleynu; as the goy lives his experience of dining on hot pepperoni pizza; so, too, l’havdil, is the experience of Hashem in one’s life beyond the realm of definitions. It is as elusive as describing colors to a blind man.

Our purpose in lumping these items into one, of course, is not to diminish in any way the experience of faith — only to properly categorize it is an experience that is beyond the realm of grammar, syntax and logic — regardless one's command of language or rhetorical aptitude.

Faith is much more, of course, than the taste of pepperoni pizza.

Unlike the other experiences mentioned, faith is an experience that possesses the potential to be consciously ever-present in our lives — if one desires it to be so and trains oneself accordingly to be open to it.

It thereby qualifies as the grandest of all experiences, and for those who have tasted it, there is nothing more desirable or sublime, no experience more exalted or transcendent than the experience of faith and trust in the Creator of Heaven and Earth.

The atheist, by contrast, can never experience something of this nature because he’s handcuffed by his compulsive commitment to logic and rationality.

And his aversion to the value and instructive potential of experience.

He ‘knows’ ONLY by reason.

Never by experience.

And that is truly a sad state of being.

Because there are ways of knowing that go beyond the accounting of mathematicians.

But they are only for those who live life.

And not for those who insist on only measuring it.

Dean Maughvet

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If anyone can suggest a book or rabbi or other Torah-grounded individual with insight/experience into dealing with narcissists and others with similar type personality disorders (OCPD, etc.), I'd be grateful to hear from you. English or Hebrew is fine, but, again, from a Torah perspective.

Not so interested in counseling options for the disorder itself; my understanding is little can be done to change these sorts of people. Rather, advice for those who have to cope with them.

Feel free to either message me direct:

Or just reply to this email.

Strictest confidence.

Grateful for any and all leads.

Dean Maughvet.

Scenic Shomron.

The Hills of Efrayim.

Take a peek.

It’s less than a minute.

Happy winter/spring,

Dean Maughvet

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Will Tu b'Shvat mark the end of our zionist banana republic?

Will real Jews finally tell the melon-heads who rule over us that we don't give a fig?

That they should go suck a lemon?

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Don't miss this, friends.

Rav Richter enters the PARDES… and comes out with a bumper crop of fruit!

A brilliant bit of learning that exposes what may be heading our way THIS WEDNESDAY NIGHT!

Click HERE to learn more.

Dean Maughvet

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Literally…

Out the window.

The Czech genius resides precisely in the practice of defenestration, a pastime in which they engaged on numerous occasions over the course of their 500 year history.

And while we don't consider ourselves Hussites in any way, nor identify with their avoda zara, we can admit to an affinity with the group’s most direct and refreshing method of expressing its dissatisfaction.

And yes, perhaps some of that “religious” zeal that prompted them to act, too.

Pinchas to the rescue!

And with that in mind, we turn to Moshe Feiglin, Israeli Prime Ministerial wannabe, whose campaign to lead the zionists into a zionist utopia by way of the zionist parliament with the support of pureblood religious zionists, has developed the following slogan to usher in their election victory —

OK, so on face it's all quite reasonable-sounding, and certainly fits well with the messianic Jewish plan.

But as we outlined HERE, it also faces a single insurmountable hurdle.

And that is…

That the State of Israel will not be involved in the attainment of the prophetic messianic vision.

Or, to put it more bluntly — only when the State of Israel disintegrates, will the salvation of the Jews arise.

And there's no need to fear it, either.

Day follows night.

The seed rots before rooting.

And the birth pangs eventually deliver a new life.

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So, what will happen to all those zionist enterprises and institutions, and all their associated paper-pusher bureaucrats when the state finally melts?

We don't know.

Hashem will judge them, as He will the rest of us, and they’ll eventually cease to be, as we all will, one way or another.

But until then, we would only caution the current Erev Rav regime and its supporters that the Jews are becoming increasingly perturbed with their behavior.

And knowing how way leads on to way, perturbation — if left on the heat for too long — can quickly boil into a righteous Pinchasian rage.

The Jews have disengaged.

And more are withdrawing all the time.

So, before they move on to the next phase, G-d forbid, and take matters into their own hands, someone might remind our (aspiring) leaders of the broken glass of Prague.

And the religious revolution it spawned.

Dean Maughvet

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I was at a neighbor's place the other day, having arrived directly from returning my flock to the barn.

“You look thirsty,” he remarked. “Would you like a glass of water?”

“Love one.”

He proceeded to the fridge, took out a pitcher and poured me a glass of something with a distinctly greenish hue.

“That's not water,” I said, taking the glass reluctantly.

“Yes it is.”

“No, no, my friend,” I joked, looking closer at its contents. “I know water. I've been drinking it for the better part of a century. Tasteless, colorless, odorless, is what they taught us. This is something else.”

“It's still water,” he said. “Believe me. It’s ‘religious zionist’ water.”

“It’s what?” I thought I was hearing things. “‘Religious zionist’ water?”

“Listen, it's not mamlachti water,” he said, putting the pitcher back in the fridge. “Their stuff is deep blue — completely unnatural. How anyone could drink it is beyond me. They're extremists, whack-jobs completely.”

“Ahhh…”

I was beginning to catch on.

“And labor zionists…?” I asked. “Their water has a particular color?”

“Of course!” he assured me: “deep red.”

I nodded.

“And Beitar, Jabotinskyites —”

“— Yellow,” he confirmed.

“So, do the chareidi leumi drink colored water?” I asked.

“Yes, of a bluish-black variety. I don't mind it, really,” he added. “There are even days when I have a real thirst for it".”

“Uh-hunh…”

I wasn’t sure there was much point continuing; we'd actually scheduled to talk about something completely different that day.

But curiosity got the better of me.

"Is there anyone who just drinks old-fashioned water, straight, without any mixings — like you find, say, in Portugal or Australia?

“Whaddaya mean? You're not a zionist?”

“Hunh?”

“You’re not a zionist? — you're opposed to the state?”

I preferred not to get into it. It seemed so far from anything concrete.

“No, no,” I said. “I'm just thirsty. And I’d prefer a glass of something pure, if possible — you know, unadulterated — just the water I’ve been used to drinking since I started walking without falling down. You’re familiar with it…?”

“I’ve seen it, yes,” he countered. “But we don’t do that here. In Israel, if you want to demonstrate your ownership over the land, your water has to be colored. Anywhere else in the world a Jew can drink that galuti stuff.”

He seemed pleased with his answer. He added: “Here, you pick your color.”

I was a little unsettled, a little bemused, but figured it was still worth approaching from a more basic, health direction.

“I always thought water just quenched our thirst, kept us alive and our bodies functioning. What’s the color add?”

“Like I said,” he continued, “here, our sovereignty can only be expressed with a color. How one wants to govern, and who is eligible to be governed, and what our obligations are as governees, are all expressed by the color of water one chooses.”

“But I know I'm sovereign here. This is Eretz Yisrael and the water that falls here — that we collect and drink — is ours. Whose else could it be? Isn’t that basic Torah?”

“You still have to choose,” he said. “And I recommend the ‘religious zionist’ water.” He pointed at my cup. “Go ahead, drink it. I think you'll see it's the closest one can get to the water referred to in the Torah. In fact, the Torah expressly states that ours is the proper water for a Jew to drink here in Eretz Yisrael.”

“You mean, they drank colored water in Torah times?”

“No, of course not. But today, we're modern. Jews who return to the land are, by definition, those who prefer colored water, and we religious zionists believe the Torah mandates this lovely green tint over all the others. But we still have a lot of convincing to do, as you'll see when you request a drink in other Israeli homes.”

I figured at that point it was time to offer a slightly more substantive challenge.

“But shouldn't we just be drinking the water our forefathers drank in Torah times? Nothing was lacking then. Shouldn’t that be the standard for a believing Jew?”

My neighbor thought a moment and looked at me with a squint. “There are some extreme types,” he said, “whose refusal to drink colored water shows the rest of us their true identity. They think they're ‘purists’. They think Torah is enough. They think colorless water is enough. They even have the gall to demand that the rest of us stop coloring our water! But we know better. This land is ours! No one else's. If you oppose us being here, oppose everything we’ve built and are trying to defend, then don't drink. But remember: we have nowhere else to go.”

I put the glass down.

Who knows what goes into a glass of water to deliver up all these colors?

And for what?

For 3500 years our people drank straight H2O, and now there's a need to add something to it?

Something’s gained from the addition?

Being a Torah observant Jew is no longer enough?

One has to be a ‘light green’ Torah observant Jew?

Or ‘deep blue’?

Or a ‘blackish-blue’?

What the chazir happened?

Somehow, my commitment to the Land of Israel is lacking without dye in my water? Somehow, I'm more galuti for wanting what Hashem gave us, without any additives?

I don't think so.

On the contrary…

To invest oneself in the dye one adds to one's drinking water only diminshes that water and turns it into something it's not — nor was ever meant to be.

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So, too, calling oneself a ‘zionist’ of this, that, or any other stripe means that Judaism as it was lived for the 35 centuries before Herzl was somehow insufficient, and that zionism came into being to remedy that lack.

Sorry, gang.

It makes no sense for a Torah Jew to buy into that.

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Take a look at your water.

It tells the tale.

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Judaism wants for nothing. The system is G-d given, whole and sufficient unto itself. It mandates with perfect clarity everything we’re meant to do here in Eretz Yisrael.

It's as pure and perfect as a cool, clear glass of water.

And adding — anything — only sullies it.

Dean Maughvet

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And then it hits him —
Hey, if enough of us come in and just order cold salads, maybe eventually we can convince the proprietor to stop serving shrimp fried rice and pork chops!  And maybe we can, like, take the place over and get a hechsher!
It's possible, right?
Even the Jewish thing to do, right?
And if it doesn't work out — hey, at least we tried, right? Put in our hishtadlut?
No one can say we don't care, or that we’re giving up on the establishment. After all, that would be negligent, right?
It’s our civic duty, right?
It's what G-d wants, right?

Notwithstanding the fact that it might be better to patronize a kosher restaurant, particularly one that’s struggling and where the food is known to be superior, even though it is a bit out of the way and requires some effort to travel there...
The question remains —

What, indeed, does G-d want?

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Jewish and Israeli affairs pundit Lisa Liel, who pens the articulate and thoughtful (though demurely titled) What Does Lisa Say? is encouraging her fellow Jews to patronize a treif restaurant and order the apparently tasty “Feiglin Salad”.

When I dared suggest that there were better ways to spend her time, and that voting for Feiglin (or anyone else) would only end bitterly, and that, moreover, treif restaurants were not the answer to our nation's travails, she cast the following aspersions —

Maybe we shouldn't have supported the kings after David. After all, they screwed up over and over.

I'm sorry, Dean, but לא בשמים היא. Emuna without hishtadlut is lazy, and simply sitting back and washing your hands of things while we have the ability to act to improve the situation is negligent.

The State of Israel is *not* an illegitimate entity. It's a vehicle. And like any vehicle, it's neither good nor bad. Depends who's driving.

We have to do the best we can with what we have.

What [Dean Maughvet] wrote came from a deep pain, and a sense that there is no way to fix this country ourselves. And maybe there isn’t. But that’s not for us to decide. We have to keep trying, even if it seems pointless.

If God does send the messiah to rescue our sorry butts because we’d proved we couldn’t do the job ourselves, I would be mortified to have him find us sitting around and moaning, “We tried, but it was too damn hard.”

That’s why I’m not giving up.

Now that’s all fine and sweet sounding, and we’ll respond to her claims in short order, but first, a little history.

Consider…

The left, under Ben Gurion, et al. —

• won the War of Independence,

• won the Sinai Campaign,

• won the Six Day War, and

• (eventually) won the Yom Kippur War.

The Right, under the Likud, et al.

• gave away the Sinai,

• lost two (or three) wars in Lebanon,

• lost two (or three) intifadas,

• gave away Gaza,

• released over 1000 terrorists in the Gilad Shalit deal — a move that led directly to…

• "the worst attack on the Jewish nation since the Shoah" and…

• the subsequent Simchat Torah War against Hamas and Hizb'Allah and Iran and Yemen (and counting…) — with the “most right-wing government” in Israeli history in the driver's seat. And, yes, we’ve just lost that one, too.

• By the way, that fabled right-wing dynasty has also yet to repeal the hated Oslo Accords, despite being in power for 25 of the 30 years since the deal was signed.

And one wonders…

Why no one stops to consider that maybe it don't make a rat’s bucket who’s running the Knesset. After all, history (G-d) somehow manages in every instance to flip things upside-down regardless the election’s outcome.

One also wonders…

Why the same people who rail against our brothers overseas for not making aliyah, claiming they're not "paying attention to history" — to crusades and inquisitions and cossacks and pogroms and the dhimmi and shoas, etc. — don't apply the same historical standard to voting in Knesset elections?

Because if history is truly a faithful guide, shouldn’t it guide us in all matters?

And that said, how has voting for right-wing and religious parties improved our situation vis-à-vis our enemies — historically?

Answer: it hasn't.

And why?

Well, maybe because G-d wants us to learn that voting itself, and democracy itself are not the desirable state of affairs for Jews sovereign in their own land. That we should consider alternatives (like a king), and until we do, He's going to continue tripping up our efforts to elect this, that or the other party or leader, because it doesn't make a whit of difference “who’s driving,” as Lisa Liel suggests, rather —

Everything depends on the vehicle.

Below, we'll examine a couple of potent Jewish vehicular options that are currently available.

But before we do, let's consider the following —

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You're a Jew.
You ostensibly believe in G-d.
You believe He guides the world, though, often, granted, His ways are unfathomable.

So, have you noticed that He appears to be constantly and deliberately noodging us AWAY from that Greek blasphemy called democracy?

Do you notice bichlal when He’s noodging you?

Do you ever stop to contemplate why, perhaps, certain unpleasant things recur in your life? Or how noodges sometimes morph into potches — or worse — when you continue merrily on your way, heedless of the warnings and admonitions and… noodges that He's continually sending?

Or do you ignore all that and just charge ahead KADIMA!, irrespective of what your Father in Heaven is trying to show you, of the messages and reprimands and inducements He's transmitting, the better to steer you in a direction that's best for you?

Is it too difficult to look outside the box, and consider that G-d, in his infinite concern for you, is suggesting a different course of action, because that would be, as Lisa Liel contends, like throwing your hands up, declaring defeat and giving up on a belief box (democracy) that you’ve dedicated so much of your life to?

So, better not to consider the noodges — rather, best to press on, “to keep trying, even if it seems pointless,” as Lisa suggests.

Hmm…

Is that really the better option?

Better than thinking?

Would it not be better at least to contemplate alternatives, reasons, different points of view — or no: just dismiss and double down and avoid thinking altogether?

Banging one’s head against a wall — for no reason — should now be considered a virtue?

That’s quite the slogan — “Don’t Think, Just Keep Trying.”

MASOCHISM AND THE LOVE OF ONE’S TORMENTORS

If your son’s an alcoholic — G-d forbid — and regularly requests money from you, and then uses it to get drunk time and time again, do you at any point cease giving it to him?
Do you at any point even consider the possibility of turning off the cash tap? Or do you just keep on, through all the pain and frustration, hoping that maybe one day he’ll use the money to take that bricklaying course (like he said he would), or take that cab to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting (like he said he would), or buy that jacket and tie to meet with Mr. Schwartz, who offered to speak with him about a concierge job across town (like he said he would).

Is there ANYTHING that would make you reconsider giving him your hard earned money time and time again?

And are you genuinely trying “to improve the situation” by continuing to plod robotically in the same direction?

I ask you, Lisa Liel… are you being realistic by repeating the same action over and over again and expecting different results?

Are you indeed, doing “the best you can with what you have” in such a case? Or are you, rather, mindlessly walking in circles because that’s what you’ve always done, and that’s what you’ve got to work with, and there’s no point getting off the carousel now because, well… they say you have to be on a carousel, and so, here you are, no point giving up, gotta put in your hishtadlut…?

Do not think!

Voting for our leaders here in Israel is no different from giving a drunk your hard earned cash.

And if you’re not prepared to consider alternatives, because that constitutes “laziness” and “simply sitting back” and “washing your hands” and “negligence”, well, then, methinks we'd better reevaluate who exactly is being negligent and who in reality is giving up, and who is actually resigned to their son remaining a drunk.

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But of course, those who believe the propaganda will contend that there’s a difference, because this is about “civic duty” and “you can't come complaining afterwards” and “after everything Israel gave you” and “one vote might end up tipping the scales” and all the other platitudes they've been fed to make them into dull-witted believers in the status quo, who are incapable of thinking independently or considering rationally and without prejudice that there might actually be a better way.

And while we’re on it, my position doesn’t come from a place of “deep hurt”, as Ms. Liel suggests (though I thank her for the dime-store psychological assessment). It comes from a principled, reasoned conclusion, arrived at after measuring the facts and considering real life history as it’s played out via the hand of G-d countless times, repetitively, over the last 80-odd years.

And, I’ve been democracy-hesitant for nearly 40 of those years, since a college professor I admired whispered one morning to our small class that “the only difference between political parties in a democracy is the rate at which they effect societal rot.”

I became a monarchist shortly thereafter.

My own, dime-store psychological assessment:

Those who think like our friend Lisa (and make no mistake — they’re the vast majority, G-d help us) appear to be living in a brainwashed, Huxleyan Brave New World, where the soma issued every few years by way of the ballot box throws a bone to the weary, and nearly everyone who swallows the democracy pill feels immediately relieved and gratified that they’ve been entrusted with such a ‘responsibility’ and delegated such a momentous ‘duty’, and considering how ‘great the stakes are’ (!) and with the ‘fate of the nation literally hanging in the balance’, and ‘this time it's make or break’ and ‘now, finally, there’s a real alternative’ and so on, and so on — “what a great privilege it is to cast one’s ballot!”

And malarkey and bollocks and billshot and horse hockey.

The truth is far starker.

Tachlis, voting in the Knesset is as valuable to the nation as a Beitar/Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer match, full of sound and fury, signifying absolutely nothing — but with only half the entertainment value.

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And while we’re there, can anyone tell me what would happen if the stadium hosting that match only drew to 15% capacity?

Can you imagine such a scenario?

Yes, the game would still be played.

And yes, a winner would be declared.

But no one would be able legitimately to claim that it was an important event, or that the results were even worth considering, or that it carried any meaning to anyone but the whiny, few hall-monitor types who actually wasted their time and money attending.

Advertisers and sponsors wouldn’t expend their energy or cash, and those who were considering buying tickets for the next match would be just as likely to seek something closer to their hearts and more worthy of their time and shekels and thought than just mindlessly going because everyone else was!

But the hype! Oh… the hype…!

And because it’s ‘the in-thing’ to do!

When we arrive at that 15% participation rate, she yihiye b’karov — or maybe even sooner — there will ensue a genuine, broad and penetrating look for alternatives (notwithstanding the fact that they’re already here), and only then will genuine Jewish change be possible.

Of course, there will always be those who insist on jumping up and down, yelling Bibi! or Feiglin! or Ben Gvir! or Pollard! or [insert the Klumnik! of your choice], but the rest of us will see them for the narrow-minded, blindered cheerleaders that they are. Literally nothing more than flag-waving soccer fans, whose yips and hurrahs, in the end, paradoxically yet consistently hand their opponents a surprise victory!

Nahafochu!

G-d is great.

And anyone who’s intellectually honest can see that history teaches that the results of Knesset elections simply don’t conform with the on-the-ground results in the military/defence arena — the prime reason most Israelis cast their ballots (i.e., ‘peace’ vs ‘security’).

”We voted right, we got left,” is the standard, post-election moan. And the masochists respond on cue: “Yeah, well you should have known better! Maybe next time you’ll vote ‘righter’ — for a REAL right-wing party! — and then you’ll see!”

Sort of like what everyone did this last election.

An election that delivered an unparalleled calamity…

That’s still ongoing a year and a half later, thanks to our “most right-wing government in the history of the state.”

And why? is the question.

Why?

The answer is — always — because G-d.

A Jew never leaves G-d out of the equation when answering ‘Why?’

Your answer…?

If you’re a believing Jew, please explain why He would do such a thing?

And why He keeps doing it over and over?

Why, for instance, did the first right-wing prime minister in Israel's history give away the Sinai?

And why did that same gentleman-hero, who ordered the killing of G-d-knows how many while leading the pre-state underground, refuse to kill Arafat when he had him in the cross-hairs in Beirut?

And why did the most storied general in Israel's history, the right-wing, monster fascist, Ariel ‘seize-the-hilltops’ Sharon, give away the Gaza Strip?

Why do these things happen?

Because there is a reason.

Could it be that we’re just not getting the message?

Could it be that we’re dining in the wrong restaurants? Is that why it keeps happening?

Because the answer always lies with G-d.

Always.

And He is trying to tell us something.

And if we’re not thick-headed golems, charging forward like a bunch of mouth-breathing soccer fans, then we’ll stop and think.

Because there's no logical, this-worldly explanation for it.

Only a Jewish one.

And perhaps it’s this —

That G-d doesn’t want evil ever to be credited with good.

It’s an idea that comes, most recently, from the Satmar Rebbe in his writings against zionism (no, I’m not a Satmar chasid, but one has to give genius its due), but can also be found in many other sources, including the Even Shetiya on sefer shemot (p. 94, h/t Rav Richter), who explains that after Pharaoh sent the B’nai Yisrael from Egypt following the plagues, G-d forced him to regret his decision and ride out into the desert in order to return them to slavery.

Why?

SO THAT NO ONE, EVER, MIGHT COMMIT THE ERROR OF THANKING PHARAOH FOR GIVING US OUR FREEDOM FROM EGYPT.

G-d orchestrates history, we know that — just as He’s doing now — to demonstrate, among other things, that good can never come from evil.

The State of Israel, for whatever temporary benefit it may have afforded Jews as a safe haven — WILL NEVER BE CREDITED WITH BRINGING THE FINAL REDEMPTION.

Because that would necessitate whitewashing all the atrocities the zionists committed — injustices that can never be left to stand.

For all the evils they perpetrated and for the viciousness of their efforts to uproot Torah from the people of Israel, they will lose their state.

And that will be a good thing.

Because only then will the redemption begin to sprout.

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And that puts those who perpetuate the existence of the state in a very bad place, because they are, in effect, perpetuating evil.

Of them, the Vilna Gaon wrote:

…the klipah of the Erev Rav works only through deception and roundabout ways. Therefore, the war against the Erev Rav is the most difficult and bitterest of all. We must strengthen ourselves for this war, and anyone who does not participate in the battle against the Erev Rav becomes, de facto, a partner with the klipah of the Erev Rav, and is better off not having being born. (Kol HaTor, Ch. 2, Chelek 2)

As for not voting amounting to taking “the easy way out”, it’s quite obvious that anyone who makes such a claim has never attempted it in Israel. Because if they had, they would understand what a trial it is, particularly here, where democracy is literally the religion of the majority — not Judaism, democracy.

The State is Gawd, and democracy is the religion. But that’s for another time.

You should only know, friends, the sturm und drang that my wife and I (and others like us) go through every election season, when we’re browbeaten and lectured and sneered at in our local makolet and at Shabbat tables and shiurim for being among the few who refuse to participate in the dance about the golden calf.

This is not a matter, as Lisa liel claims, of

• “emuna without hishtadlut,” or

• “laziness,” or

• "simply sitting back and washing your hands of things” or

• “negligence.”

It’s also not born “of pain or despair of ever fixing things.”

It’s precisely the opposite.

In our yishuv, it’s known by all who does and who does not vote. And it's not like we stand up and announce the fact. We don't. We come from a place (and time, I guess), when voting was considered a private matter. We tell no one of our intentions.

Yet, come voting day, the phone starts ringing.

“Do you intend to vote today?”

“Are you coming to vote; there are still three hours left?”

“Has your wife voted?”

“Does she plan to?”

“May I ask why…?”

And then afterwards, when the information is made public to everyone in the yishuv, not officially, of course, but it does manage to circulate rather quickly…

Then we and the three or four others who prefer to think independently of the herd, begin to get pilloried and snooted at for being less than dutiful citizens by — can I say it? — the Lisa Liels of this world.

No one can tell me that my choice is easy, or that it amounts to throwing up my hands and giving up, etc.

On the contrary, it’s an active decision that requires us to steel ourselves, because we know it will lead to significant, though not unexpected discomfort in our community.

Try it. Then tell me it's the path of least resistance.

We do it because we believe it's the true path, the only one that G-d really wants, and we choose to live by our convictions.

Those who continue to vote, in fact, are the ones who have despaired. They have washed their hands of doing anything that might change the situation, and they may be guilty of more than just negligence. By way of their encouragement and pep, and their tendentious reasoning and rhetoric, they may be guilty of causing the masses to sin.

And why would they do that?

Because they don’t possess the imagination, the will or the courage to give their thought and energy to anything but beating their heads against a cold, stone wall, even though they admit it’s pointless.

That’s not “trying.”

That’s masochism.

Lo b’shamayim hee, friends. Open your hearts to other possibilities, because there is a way to fix this country, though it doesn’t consist of repeating the same old slogans and marching behind this or that loudmouth with brand new, colorful signage.

It means, in the first place — opting out.

Hitnatkut.

Because the lefties are often right…

For the wrong reasons.

We have to separate from the tumah and not give them our time or energy or support.

The Erev Rav lives off the kedusha of good, albeit misguided Jews, who've been seduced and ensnared by their wiles.

It therefore behooves all good Jews to divorce themselves to the maximum degree possible from the state and all its institutions, even though it involves pain and enduring insults and inconveniences.

Every Jew will have to decide according to his commitment level and pain tolerance how far he and his family can travel down that road, because the kosher restaurant, remember, is located a tad out of the way.

And not casting a vote, relatively speaking, will be among the easiest of tasks in the campaign to restore the Davidic Kingship.

Not serving in TzaHaL is of far greater moment and import, while general civil disobedience will ultimately win the day.

Because the leftists showed us, unequivocally, what can be done by a rather small cadre of dedicated individuals ready to disrupt the workings of the state on a regular basis for an extended period.

They’re very often right, these leftists — though, again, always for the wrong reasons.

And we have what to learn from them.

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Moshe Feiglin, if memory serves, had a good degree of success in this area, as well — that is, working OUTSIDE THE SYSTEM .

However, as soon as he entered the established, zionist political arena, as you know, G-d thwarted him.

Only from without will we win, as the Kaplanists have demonstrated.

[By the way, Feiglin ultimately lost because his followers were too zionist, too establishment, and sadly, not willing enough to take the fight to the next level, as the Hilltop Youth and Peleg Yerushalmi are now doing, may Hashem bless their efforts and their willingness to bleed and be beaten for the cause.]

Real Mesirut Nefesh

If one’s mesirut mefesh only extends to hosting parlor meetings and sticking Feiglin signs on people's front lawns, then one has never known true mesirut nefesh all one's days.

And as far as actual politicking goes, there are, indeed, options for those of a more loquacious nature.

See HERE for a brief discussion on the establishment of an alternate “government-in-exile” for the Jewish nation, a sound departure point for kick-starting the Jewish Monarchy Movement.

The Davidic dynasty will be reestablished, despite the efforts of those who seek to retard it.

And when it does arrive, we’ll support its good kings and criticize and admonish its bad ones — as the entire prophetic tradition adjures us to do.

But kingship itself will never be in question.

Until then, we continue in our efforts to convince, even coerce, G-d through our teshuva, our mitzvot, prayers, Torah learning and ma'asim tovim, that we're worthy of his mercy and of the destruction of the evil ones who rule over us.

We recognize, too, that it's only because of our many sins that the day of our greatest rejoicing, Simchat Torah, was turned into a holocaust.

Continuing blindly in the same direction, and eating at the same treif eateries, only guarantees another such occurrence, G-d forbid.

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It's time to decide — all of us — if we're going to follow the path of Ben Gurion, who insisted on working with what he had, (the British), and turning over Jews to the occupier to be tortured, killed or disappeared.

Or to dream of the glory of a rebuilt Third Temple, as Avraham Stern did.

And know it well —

That it was to Stern and his followers that Winston Churchill referred when he wrote that the British Empire was “unceremoniously booted from Palestine by a handful of Jewish terrorists!”

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If you've been a hostage to Ben Gurion, it's now time for herut.

Time to rise up.

Like Stern.

And operate outside the system.

Dean Maughvet

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In memory of Binyamin and Talia Kahane HY”D, Nati Ozeri HY”D and Ariel Bereny, all of whose love for Jews and Israel remains a guiding light for us all.

Yet, in his jottings, one uncovers here and there a turn of phrase that bespeaks what chazal termed the “wisdom of the goyim.”

One such instance of that wisdom was encountered by a bright-eyed, truth-seeking college student some four decades ago and has remained as a lamp unto his feet ever since.

And it goes like this —

Now, the value of pearls like these is that, when acquired young, they can actually save you a great deal of time and energy, not to mention mental anguish.

And in this particular case, I'm pleased to report that this pithy little maxim spared me communing excessively with individuals whose company I most assuredly would have come to regret.

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Hindsight also informs me with crystalline clarity that my then barely 20 years on the planet would not have afforded me sufficient experience or intellect to arrive at the same conclusion that Monsieur Montaigne handed me in but a few seconds.

How long it might have taken me to acquire a sagacity equal to the Frenchman's is anyone's guess.

Perhaps decades.

Perhaps never.

And so, of course, I'm thankful to Hashem for sending me that nugget at such an early juncture.

Well, after returning to the Jewish fold many years later — and even unto this day — the relevance and usefulness of this bon mot is still proving itself.

Because amongst our kin and nation this dreaded “accord” still persists — supercelestial thoughts and subterranean conduct.

To our great chagrin.

WHERE?

You may have encountered it, too, as it can be found among frum Jews — mostly those of a chasidishe/kabbalistic bent, though not exclusively. And it involves a sort of free-floating, groovy misapprehension of how the world works.

It’s an approach that’s grounded to some extent in authentic sources, but, in my view, has been taken to such an extreme as to constitute a genuine danger to us all.

If we could boil it down to a single declarative statement, it would look like this:

Either —

1. Evil does not exist,

Or —

2. Evil deeds or words must be understood as being just the hand of Hashem — so there's really nothing to be said or done in response, because in essence one cannot and should not fight the will of G-d.

Hmm…

What it amounts to, essentially, is passivity in the face of evil.

The contextualizing of pernicious behavior is just another way of condoning it, regardless the invocation of theological principles. It's just bad practice.

Ask one of these people how they justify such a stance, and they’ll tell you unequivocally — “Hakol Eloki”, it's all G-dly, as in: everything comes from Hashem.

Fine.

So, I asked one of them — a local, kabbalistically-inclined hilltop dweller — if it would be permissible for him to spit in my face and then claim “Hakol Eloki”.

He responded negatively.

But when I pressed him to answer why?, he refused, and just stared at me as if I were a blind miskein who was lacking in basic faith.

My guess is that he preferred not to admit that such an action would be categorically evil — a designation he's unwilling to entertain even as a possibility. But who can say?

In any event, what proceeds from such an outlook, in my observation, is a very cool acceptance of nearly every form of bad behavior one can imagine, including neglect of children, bullying of neighbors, and a generally derisive and unwelcoming attitude toward “outsiders” — those without the same penchant for flowing clothes and a similar laissez-faire tolerance for nastiness.

And while these actions might not rise to the enormities of Shabtai Tzvi or Jacob Frank, yimach shemam vzichram, or the peace-at-any-cost zionist lefties — who can know what these people do behind closed doors…?

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The term “mean hippies” was once applied to the group by a shabbat guest of ours who had been mistreated by the clique during a stay in Nachlaot.

MEAN HIPPIES

We found that apt.

Just to wrap this section before moving on, it seems their behavior stems from the very hip notion that Hashem sends us both good and bad via good and bad shlichim (a genuinely Jewish concept). But then they take the idea a further (non-Jewish) step by deducing that there can be no evil (!) because everything ultimately issues from Hashem, a G-d who is altogether good.

WRONG.

Evil exists, and it must be fought.

But now we're moving beyond the parameters of today's scratch-in-the-sand, so let's pull it back on topic.

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There's another group in which a ridiculous high-mindedness leads directly to the most loathsome behavior.

Religious zionists, to be more precise.

Religious zionists support the state of Israel in nearly every possible way. They may have questions or misgivings about the extent or reasons for their support, but they offer it nonetheless.

Many also believe it to be a temporary necessity, until such time as they can seize the levers of power and steer the zionist ship of state toward more spiritual waters.

“Soon we'll take over,” they assure us, “and make everything kosher. Just look at the progress we've made in the last few decades! We have more MKs in the Knesset, more officers in the army, more doctors in the hospitals and bureaucrats in the glorious halls of zionist apparatchika!”

And yet…

They also make peace with the anti-Torah, zionist crimes against simple Jews that commenced well before the establishment of the state.

How so…?

They claim, again, in the most misguided fashion — "hakol Eloki”.

It's all G-d.

And they continue, by saying —

That Hashem gave us a state after 2000 years of miserable wandering (which He did), therefore the state must be a repository of holiness — of G-dliness, even — and must be treated with the utmost sanctity and reverence.

Oh…?

And didn't we just celebrate Chanuka?

A holiday that proves that assumption entirely wrong?

HOW?!

Ramban (on B’reishit 49:10) explains that the kingship of the Chashmonaim — who were Kohanim and not of the tribe of Yehuda, as kings are meant to be — was not at all to Hashem’s liking, and he punished them severely for assuming it.

Their kings were killed, their rulership was marred by constant discord and clashes between factions, and all the serving Kohanim G’dolim of the period barely lived out a single year of their service!

It was precisely this instability that paved the way for the Roman conquest and the subsequent gerush that we're still suffering today.

In short, if the Chashmonaim were found so hateful in Hashem’s eyes merely because they weren't from shevet Yehuda, then al achat kama v’kama, the irreligious, anti-Torah zionists of our own day.

No justification can be made by anyone for supporting such a regime.

The historical precedent is far too damning to ignore.

And yet all that’s lost on a great majority of knitted skullcaps ready to quote Rav Kook (of whose lyrical Torah they haven't the foggiest understanding, and whose own students HID and censored his writings in order to make the man after their own image) to the effect that the State of Israel represents the yad Hashem, and accepting it, therefore, is nothing short of a religious imperative.

Moreover, if it weren't for those meddling hilltop youth and crazy, stiff-necked chareidim they'd have already safely piloted the nation into a more secure, Jewish harbor.

…Apparently, we hilltoppers make it harder for them to ingratiate themselves with the ruling Hellenist establishment.

Good Religious vs Bad Religious

Yet, while they storm about raging that everything's Eloki, they'll also readily admit that Hashem doesn't like stolen Yemenite babies, irradiated sefaradi children, and the systematic torture of individuals who've been denuded of their rights in order to obtain confessions that have no legal standing whatsoever.

They’ll also tell you that He doesn't like the instituitionalized persecution of chareidim or the vaccination of citizens against their will and contrary to all standards of accepted medical ethics and public health.

He equally doesn't condone medical experiments done on newborns or the mentally ill, or those expressing opinions against the state suddenly disappearing or dying mysteriously in her jails.

He doesn't like young men being fed to a Gazan woodchopper when there are obviously more effective means of prosecuting the war, but “hey! we also have to consider what the goyim will say!”

In the end, any attempt to present them with the insanity of supporting such a hateful regime is invariably met with, “I prefer to work with what I have.”

As if that were a Torah principle.

As if it were a measure of ‘realism’.

As if rejection and hitnatkut were not also viable options (spoiler: they are — as you’ll see in an upcoming post).

“I prefer to work with what I have.”

And if all you have is Nazis?

Then at what point do you also become a Nazi…?

Or is it sufficient just to claim that you're trying to get them to do teshuva, these misguided Nazis…?

To conclude —

• When a Jew aspires to a virtuousness that has nothing to do with honest Torah principles,

• When he deigns to venture beyond pshat in simple matters of ben adam l'chaveiro and develop new, abstract theoretical hashkafot to bypass traditional notions of good and evil, then…

He’ll inevitably send his seven-year-old child to school day after day to be beaten and bullied by other children without ever raising the alarm or even once intervening with teachers, so that the child better learns “to manage” and comes to appreciate that everything is Eloki. (For real. We saw this.)

He'll also countenance and even support the destruction of an innocent and vigorous 20 year-old’s spirit via ceaseless weeks of torture, incomprehensible physical and mental torment — and all in the name of extracting a confession that might better discredit an altogether courageous, idealistic and worthy segment of society.

Our entire avodah in this world is to rid it of evil. When we distort reality to avoid that task, we merely perpetuate the suffering of our people indefinitely.

The mean hippies and mamlachto-nazis among us have lost their grounding. They no longer distinguish between ikkar and tafel.

And that threatens us all.

Dean Maughvet

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There's a story told — possibly apocryphal, possibly a complete lie — about a meeting that took place in Paris between Hemingway and Fitzgerald while both were vying for the mantle of America’s “greatest living writer”.

Apparently, numerous attempts had been made to get them to meet, all of which ended in failure.

And then it happened.

As far as I know, only Hemingway recorded his thoughts on the meeting.

And this is a paraphrase of what he said:

We found a bar, drank, chatted, didn’ t really have much in common.

Except for one thing…

We both agreed that everything that happens to you in life is your own damn fault.

And that, my friends, is a remarkably Jewish sentiment — from a couple of goyishe drunks!

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Let me explain.

We all know that the good and the bad we receive in our lives comes from Hashem. He sends it to us as we need it, in the quantity we require, and precisely at the hour that’s most propitious. And he does it to assist us in moving forward with whatever tikkun we have to make in this world.

Hashgacha, is what we call it, often translated into English as ‘divine providence’.

But no matter how it's termed, it's verily the way the system works, and our understanding of that reality — and our belief in it — is what we call emunah.

Can you repeat that?

Yes.

Again: the belief that Hashem guides every aspect of our individual lives, as well as our broader communal and national life — and that of the rest of the planet — that is precisely the faith of a Jew.

Emunah vs Bitachon

Now, how we actually function with that knowledge, how we cope and operate within the confines of that faith — how we respond to the challenges and handle the tests and stresses and change that Hashem throws at us — that is what a Jew terms bitachon, our “trust” in G-d.

If we were philosophers, we might say that emuna derives from the realm of epistemology, whereas bitachon relates more to the ethical, middot side of our lives.

So, a Jew believes that Hashem is guiding his life.

Fine.

But when his car breaks down in heavy traffic, does he still believe that it's ‘all for the best’? does he understand it to be just part of his tikkun? and that there's no need to fret? that he should just be thankful for whatever the lesson might be, and b’ezrat Hashem it’ll all become clear in time…?

Does he trust that Hashem did it for the benefit of his eternal soul?

Or…?

Or does he curse his car and his mechanic and complain about the rotten job he did last go-round (and how he was overcharged by that dirty swindler), while he yells at his kids in the back seat for not being quiet while he’s trying “to think”.

The tests we get, fellow Jews, are tailor-fitted and hand-crafted for us and only us, and all we have to do when they strike is…

React correctly.

If we don't — if anxiety and stress and worry are the way we respond to the vicissitudes He daily hurls our way — then we merely testify therewith to our lack of trust in Him.

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Now, let's carve this turkey up for serving!

So, here we are at the end of days, with the ikveta d’meshicha literally crashing all about us and the geulah shleima at our doorstep.

That said, it appears we still have a few more rivers to cross, and behold! they're rushing at us in the form of —

1. Rising inflation,

2. Mounting antisemitism,

3. Regional wars,

4. Extreme weather,

5. Food scarcity,

6. Societal polarization,

7. Absolute technological surveillance,

8. Increasing fissures in the global financial and economic edifice,

9. Civil strife,

10. A globalist push for totalitarian control, and

11. Credible threats of nuclear armageddon.

And the question every believing Jew has to be asking is — what in the world is Hashem doing?!

And why all at once?!

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And the answer is the very same we offered above with our broken car analogy:

He's doing it simply to see how we react.

And that's that.

WHAT?!

That’s right. He wants to know who genuinely trusts in him, come what may, and who is merely ‘playing Jewish’.

And as we move into the final innings before Mashiach, and it becomes tougher and tougher to weather the onslaught of literally everything the Master of the Universe has to test us with (and, believe me, he possesses one amply equipped utility belt!), it becomes imperative that we rise to the occasion and face down every pitch he heaves our way with as much equanimity and trust as we can muster.

That is to say, as we approach the Ketz, Hashem wants more than anything to purify each and every one of us.

How?

By burning out every last vestige of faith we place in the false gawds of our day — from money to muscle to armies and air forces and iron domes and laser beams, from this or that political candidate, from technological prowess and academic credentials to medical science and expert opinions, and…

Well, you get the point.

Every possible trial you require to destroy your false beliefs, misplaced hopes and errant convictions will be sent to you.

And that's a guarantee.

And yes, again, it's all for the good of your eternal soul — to purge it of the dross and tumah that you’ve collected all the days of your life (and possibly from a few that came before).

It will no doubt be a frightening time, as everyone is tested to the limits of his ability.

And it may also be sorrowful, as those who are taken from us by war, famine, fear, or whatever other instrument He chooses, succumb to the perils of the day.

But know, too, that this is also a test, and perhaps the most difficult of all.

One that forces us to remember the words of the Kotzker Rebbe, who taught us that there’s “nothing more whole than a broken heart.”

As the mishna in Kelim (2:1) teaches regarding clay vessels — “in their breaking is their purification.” So, too, can a broken heart draw a person inestimably closer to Hashem.

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What’s coming, according to the prophets and ChaZaL, will be especially demanding.

But it will also contain the seed of a new world entirely, from which we and our descendants will nourish ourselves spiritually until the end of time.

If, already at this early hour we embrace Hashem, and trust that he’s acting in the interest of our immortal, holy neshamot, and we stand firm in our faith that He and only He is guiding events toward the best possible outcome,

Then…

He’ll have less reason to test us.

And…

:וְצַדִּ֖יק בֶּֽאֱמוּנָת֥וֹ יִחְיֶֽה…

We’ll have merited to LIVE IN OUR FAITH, as the navi Chavakuk says — not just to possess it intellectually, but literally to live that faith, to trust in Him always —

Even as the car breaks down…

Again.

And again.

And to appreciate — with a smile — that it's all our own damn fault.

G-d be with you.

Dean Maughvet

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And after reading through the article and comments and not seeing anything that looks or tastes or even closely relates to chareidim as I've come to know them, I gripped my quill firmly, unrolled a fresh yard of parchment and prepared to squander even more superfluous ink.

But before I make my mess, isn't it fascinating how nearly everyone is ready to characterize and judge chareidim as if they were a single, monolithic amorphous blob?

And to ascribe to them, as a bloc, pathologies and personality disorders and neuroses and guilt complexes much in the manner that Ford's International Jew and Hitler's Mein Kampf did? Yimach shemam v’zichram.

So much subtlety and careful analysis.

So much ahavat Yisrael!

Incredible.

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And preposterous.

The chareidi world is at least as varied and nuanced and fractured as any other segment of Israeli society — if not more.

That said, the condemnation, ridicule and even derision of the chareidi universe is issued with such a smug, self-satisfied sense of assurance, that one wonders if the detractors ever ventured that world at all, or if their cartoonish understanding of so rich and vibrant a sector of Judaism was purchased via the scan of a weekend Jerusalem Post, or a scroll through Arutz 7.

In short, so ignorant (and in some cases malign) is the criticism, that we believe it requires immediate disqualification of the critic himself and a short note placed beside one’s computer indicating, in red, the vanity of ever again taking that writer seriously.

Does that mean one can't generalize about chareidim?

No, sir.

But certainly not in so vulgar a manner.

So, let’s give it a whirl!

The one item, in our view, that epitomizes chareidim is their willingness to take on the greatest enemy that Jews face today, the Erev Rav. There are others who are willing to face them down, too, like the Hilltop Youth and other Kahane types, but what unites nearly all chareidim and what distinguishes them from the rest of Israeli Jewry is their recognition of that particular evil embodied at the core of the zionist enterprise.

And anyone with any historical perspective knows precisely what that evil is — a desire to destroy Torah and remove G-d completely from the Israeli reality, chas v’shalom.

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Now, again, not all chareidim are of this view, as we stated above. There are those who are stronger in their outlook, like the Peleg Yerushalmi and the Eida Chareidit, who are willing to be moser nefesh til the end on the matter.

While at the other end of the spectrum are those who are willing to join the army or police or whatever other state institution might offer reasonable employment benefits and a pension.

And that last is not hypocrisy, by the way. In a socialist country like Israel your ‘opt-out’ options are limited. You can’t run from Bituach Leumi or the kupot cholim or the electric utility monopoly — unless you want to die, go bankrupt or be imprisoned.

As well, collaborating with any of those institutions doesn’t bring a Jew to any safek of tumah; that is, you’re not going to lose your olam haba because you were forced to pay a monthly premium to Meuchedet or because you accepted your kitzbat yeladim.

But army service is different.

TzaHaL today remains more an experiment in social engineering than a genuine army — the last year and a half’s appearances to the contrary.

It’s goal is clearly to create zionists, erase religiosity and help the nation march hand-in-LGBT-hand toward a secular, Miami-on-the-Med reality.

And that’s where most chareidim draw the line.

When it’s clear that the goal is shmad, why participate?

More to the point, why not resist with all one’s might?

Particularly when no one else is doing it (with the earlier-mentioned exceptions of the Kahanists and the Hilltop Youth).

As far as the chareidim are concerned, the greatest enemy of the Jewish people is the Erev Rav, not the Arabs. And methinks they’re right.

The Erev Rav has already done a wicked number on the mamlachti, tapu-chip kippa sruga cohort, who are happy to fight and die for the regime while the army strives (mostly successfully) to strip them of all outward traces of their Judaism.

Why should the chareidim do the same?

They have a G-d.

And their hands are already full with a different fight.

You take the Arabs… We’ll take the zionists.

A proper division of labor, you might call it, an enemy for the dati leumi and another for the chareidim.

Let the entire country can stand up and yell “but we bear the burden!”

In the Arab arena, maybe.

But against the cruelest of all foes…?

Only chareidim.

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And as for those who point fingers and issue diagnoses of the only unified body resisting both passively and actively the Erev Rav murderers who rule over us, please consider…

That to the extent you oppose these people and their lifestyle and the battle they’ve chosen to wage — you simultaneously reveal yourself to be in possession of a very particular form of kefira.

One that draws from the well of the Mityavnim.

One that desires to break from the old-world ostjuden, the better to acculturate into Berlin, with its ‘new’ Judaism, its modern, rational sensibility and its proud, statist temperament.

Those who opt for such an outlook should know — they make of the state a golden calf and confer legitimacy upon the zionist Amalekites.

And they damn themselves and the rest of us to ruin.

Dean Maughvet

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He wrote like this:

Pollard is a hero whether he has all of the right ideas or wrong ideas, whether he was a spy for pay or for Israel, whether we like him or not.

One can argue about how to best spend one’s time and energy - trying to fix a broken state or building a new one. In the meantime, "the state" like the term Zion means different things to different people. If he [Pollard] means the nation of Israel or the security of the people dwelling in the state of Israel, then I agree that everyone should do some sort of service to defend themselves and their fellow Jews. G-d helps and defends those who help themselves and who place their faith in Him. Haredim should know how to use weapons and should master the use of weapons to defend themselves, their community and others. Safra and Seifa is the Torah way. And not standing by our brother's blood is an obligation. Ironically, since 1984 lo tamod al dam reyecha is actually incorporated into Israeli law. One has every right and obligation to study Torah anywhere, everywhere, anytime. One also has an obligation to fight to protect his fellow Jew and to contribute in some way to the war effort.

Fair enough.

And we responded thus:

Shalom X—!

Agreed. 100%. Pollard is a hero. That's why I wrote: "He did the State of Israel and the Jewish people a tremendous tova, for which we should all be grateful."

But Moshe Feiglin is also a hero.

That notwithstanding, neither should be given a license to organize the Jewish people to do stupid things.

Feiglin was better at diagnosing the ills of Israeli society — perhaps better than most. But his medicine was outright wrong. And he wasted a lot of people's time, energy and money leading them down the garden path. (I'm not talking about his opposition to the hitnatkut; I'm talking about his political action, afterwards.) Tens, if not hundreds of thousands of his idealistic followers were rewarded with exactly nothing for their efforts.

Hallevai someone spoke out against this before it happened! Hallevai that all that energy was directed to more fruitful ends!

But no one did.

That's why I wrote this piece. Pollard's hero status doesn't immunize him from being stupid, or from getting criticism.

As to the chareidim, my guess is there's not one of them that doesn't want to know how to use a gun, or to kill the enemy.

They just don't want to serve in the Tsar's army. And who can blame them? The bargain of gaining a weapon while, at the same time, subjecting oneself to the tumah of Tsahal, is one they don't want to make. I also teach my kids it's not a bargain worth making. Like Binyamin Kahane HY”D said: "Everyone has to decide for themselves" regarding army service.

I'm with him. My guess is he was referring precisely to that same bargain.

Best,

Dean

That said, I was also contacted by a couple of well-intentioed rabble rousers who are trying to turn Pollard from an establishment figure into a proper Hilltop renegade.

And that got me thinking.

Maybe Jonathan Pollard could still be useful to the Jewish people. Not as a politician, of course, where he’d be eaten alive by the powers-that-be and then rendered an impotent boob, as Feiglin was.

Rather —

We imagine a scenario in which someone like Pollard, and others who are outside the system, organize to form a Jewish “government-in-(internal)-exile” (along the lines of the ‘shadow cabinets’ that exist in British-style parliaments), that includes people like Feiglin and rabbis from the Eida Chareidit, Rabbi Azriel Auerbach of the Peleg Yerushalmi, maybe Rav Amnon Yitzchak (who has consistently been on the right side of most issues) and others who recognize the anti-Jewish nature of the current zionist regime and openly foment for its replacement.

Were such a body to come into being, it might accomplish two things —

1. The general public could be brought to believe that an alternative to the current, corrupt zionist apparatus is achievable, and

2. When the state does begin to disintegrate — a development we foresee as both inevitable and near — a living body with an independent Jewish bent would be available to move us toward a Third Temple reality.

Until then, the entire raison d'être of this group would be to mock, chide and defame the existing system and its participants, to reveal its outright goyische character and to provoke, in turn, a vicious response from the establishment that would cement in people's minds the existence of a genuine Jewish alternative.

Importantly, no member of this would-be government-in-(internal)-exile would be permitted to express himself via any existing Israeli media outlet. Those outlets would be banned from all events, rallies, speaking engagements, press releases, manifestos, position papers, critiques, etc. They would be frozen out absolutely from contact with the group.

Only an alternative set of media and scribes would be permitted to engage the new body, and only they would have access to its members. Foreign media would also be granted complete access.

This, of course, would require strong discipline. But it would be necessary to send a message — that no one cares anymore for “official” reportage on the zionist drama, replete with its swiftly unfolding, breathless, live, sideline-coverage of the length of Bibi's prostate incision.

No mainstream media participation would also advance us toward our ultimate goal.

And what is that goal?

Quite simply, to present a completely Jewish alternative to the current Erev Rav monstrosity that rules over us — to hear what it might sound like and see what it might look like.

Why?

Because all that's required, in the end, is a minority of Jews to believe that there exists a stark alternative that's worth listening to… and revolutionary change then becomes possible.

This, of course, would necessitate people like Pollard and Feiglin tossing away their egos and overcoming any notion they might harbor of “leading the nation”.

Because we really dont need leaders of that sort.

Nothing personal.

We just need a king.

But in the meantime, we require shovels.

So, if Jonathan Pollard is ready to be a shovel — a shovel that digs a hole deep and wide, upon which a foundation can then be poured, then we’re getting somewhere.

He and others who come to serve in the would-be government-in-(internal)-exile would have to understand that they’re not the holy edifice that will ultimately be built here in Eretz Yisrael — they’re not even the foundation of that edifice.

They’re merely shovels — tools in the hands of the Al-mighty to forge a new and healthy Jewish mindset that will pave the way for the rise of the House of David.

The man has organizational skills and communication skills — as does Feiglin.

Let him use them.

To lead the people away from the Knesset.

Not deeper into its dreary, labrynthian underground catacombs.

We've had enough of minotaurs.

And seen enough of Knossos.

Dean Maughvet

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