Fast of Tevet

Today is the Fast of Tevet, marking the date when the armies of Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem. It is a unique date this year as it falls on the eve of Shabbat. So significant is this fast that we do not manipulate the calendar to prevent it from falling on a Friday. Instead, we prepare for Shabbat without tasting the food we are cooking. And rather than break the fast at sundown, we wait until after the kiddush Friday night. But back to the siege.

As we see again and again, when Am Yisrael fails to accomplish its mission, when it fails and strays from serving HaShem, there are dire consequences. In this case, it was the worship of foreign gods that brought about the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple of Solomon, where now stands that ugly pimple of al-aqsa and the golden omar pimple. We should only merit to witness the coming of Moshiach and rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash...today.

Alas, we continue to stumble. The government of Israel, largely comprised of men who are only nominally Jews and have no loyalty to the G-d of Israel, continues to speak of freezes or negotiations with Arab animals who spray graffiti on the walls of Joshua's tomb, desecrate a memorial for a rabbi, kindergarten teacher, and father of seven that they murdered, and day in and day out make clear that their dearest wish is to baptize their homicide-belt wearing babies in the blood of Jews. You don't negotiate with this...you do what the Torah demands, what the G-d of Israel demands...that these people be driven out from the land of Israel. They have lands that were given to them. Let them live there and do whatever it is they wish there.

Is the Torah not clear enough? If we love HaShem and keep the mitzvot the rains will fall and the land will give its abundance in its season, which includes driving out those who seek to kill us. If we do not...tzuris, and we are driven out, a process that began on this day some 2500 years ago. And so I will fast, not so much to remember this event, but because we clearly are screwing up again and need help. I need help. It is not easy being a Jew in galut, in exile. I need to keep going, continuing to move forward, doing what I can to stay on the path HaShem has me walk. But it's hard. The great scholars are few and far between. There are fewer and fewer to turn to here, and so we go further and further astray, making checking the lettuce for bugs more important than Ahavat Yisrael.

What is the lesson of Chanukah that we recently finished celebrating? It's not about oil. The lesson lies in the aftermath, when civil war between Jews exacerbated a reliance on foreign power which led directly to the annexing of Judea by the Roman Empire. Today that fat head idiot Bibi and his council of garbage led by the two-headed windbag of Peres and Barak spend their waking hours either plotting how to sacrifice Torah Jews to the god of their political/secular power, or figuring out how to kiss the White House ring without writing their political death sentence. These morons fail to learn the lesson of Chanukah...without unity among Jews we are the prey of foreign influence that will first promise us protection, and then slit our throats.

It is time to stop using Torah as a bludgeon against those who are not observant, and time to start using it to remind them that Torah is who they are, use it as a means to bring them back to where they are supposed to be...something Chabad does so well. The Midrash tells us that at Sinai, everyone heard the Voice of HaShem in accordance to their own capacity to understand. Moshe was the only one of us to grasp all that was conveyed and it was his job to explain to us what it all meant. We have no Moshe now. We are all, all of us, groping around in the dark, until Moshiach comes.

So yeah, I'm fasting in the hopes that the pendulum starts moving in earnest in the direction of redemption and insight, and that my own sight improves right along with everyone else. We can't be a light unto the nations when there are frum couples going on the People's Court attempting to scam goyim out of money over a wig, and when we fail to get our own selves together.

So what's my fast about really? It's for more Torah...and less bullshit.