To Preseve Jewish Lives…
Not since WW2, have we encountered as capable and dangerous Jewish person to the Jewish people as Ariel Sharon. Without exaggeration, Sharon has captured the hearts and minds of Jews throughout the world, even before the recent strokes. He has masterfully reversed his cursed image as a murderer and killer at the Sabra and Shatilla massacres. President Bush recently called him a “man of courage and peace”. Just a few years ago, those words would have been the last words on the lips of Bush and the overwhelming majority of the nations who fought against Sharon’s election, fearing that Sharon would only be a war hawk and exacerbater of the fires burning in the Middle East.
Whether one is an admirer of Sharon or not, one must admit that he has an almost hypnotic control over the masses of worldwide Jews. Most people are so thirsty for a strong leader, (even more so in the socialist temperate climate of Israel), that they implicitly place their trust and own personal responsibility on the shoulders of someone as confident as Sharon. He has hood-winked Jews that he knows what is best and has proven that he has the power to carry out his directives without fear.
Even if Sharon survives the stroke and cannot return to his job as Prime Minister, the damage to Jewish lives and the integrity of the Land of Israel will continue with even greater force. His mere existence will give strength to Kadima and their platform to divide Jerusalem and return most of the West Bank and Golan Heights. Shimon Peres and Ehud Olmert’s greatest desire is to see Sharon survive but be banished to his ranch in the Negev. These two “enlightened” Liberals will then ride the coattails of a compassionate vote for Sharon/Kadima by the Israeli public while increasing the speed and immediacy of further withdrawals. These withdrawals, coordinated by Shaul Mofaz and Avi Dichter will be prioritized over the battle against Arab terrorism which will cause further deaths and injuries to Jews.
The simple truth is that their priority is Land appeasement and the honored prize of signing the Peace Treaty with an Arab Palestine State next to Israel, G-d forbid. Oh, how the world will kvell over Jews accepting continual “sacrifices for peace” as long as the “ancient Palestinians” have parts of their homeland back as a recognized entity!
Israel and the world are and will be so enraptured by Sharon’s condition, that Olmert and Peres will sweep to victory. Maybe, a rumor will start that the increasingly heroic Sharon has “nodded” towards Olmert when asked whether Olmert has Sharon’s approval. Or maybe, questions will be posed to Sharon, almost like an oracle, as to whether he favors massive further concessions of Jerusalem and the West Bank. All the fawning public will require is a nod from Sharon or a slight movement of his hand, and this will be the “maka b’patish” (final hammer blow) to enable further lives to be endangered by Israeli paralysis and the dividing of the Land.
Sharon’s physical existence, whether he is capable of communicating or not, is a spell cast over a public desirous of a strong heroic Jewish leader. To the disaster of countless Jewish lives, the longer this political idol exists and is worshipped, the faster an Arab murderous State in the Land of Israel will be established.
Sharon’s physical demise would be healthy and beneficial for the psychological and physical welfare of millions of Jews. Save your prayers and Psalms for the thousands of terror victims killed and maimed by Sharon’s all-encompassing agenda to be categorized as a “man of courage and peace”. No other Israeli politician has the individual support and political ability to carry out such wide and pervasive Land concessions as Sharon did and has presently planned.
I have heard from the majority of Torah observant Jews with whom I have spoken to that “Sharon should have a complete recovery and do tshuva” (repentance). As Jews, we do not rely on miracles when faced with the threat that Sharon’s existence will most definitely cause the senseless loss of countless of Jews, G-d forbid. Not just one miracle, that of a refuah shleimah (complete recovery), but they demand two miracles, the other being that he miraculously see the wrongs of his past at the age of 77.
Ariel Sharon has proven himself more than capable of the physical bulldozer-like removal of Jews from the Land of Israel along with the conscious decision NOT to fight terror with the full force of the IDF and has sacrificed the innocent lives of men, women and children. More Jews have died due to terrorism under Sharon than ALL other Prime Ministers combined since the establishment of the State of Israel! His continued existence will give succor to those whose primary goal in political life is to appease the Nations and chase the coveted Nobel Peace Prize designated for he who signs the Peace Treaty with Arab Palestine.
For the future of the Jewish people and our children, we need to move on, breaking the shackles weighing us down by the magnetic hold of Sharon’s aura and personality. Time is of the essence. We need to stop the un-Jewish folly of misplaced compassion when it comes to the greatest Jewish enemy of the Jewish people today.
For the sake of millions of Jewish lives that will be in immediate danger, I offer one prayer in Ariel Sharon’s behalf:
May he soon rest in peace.
Leib Schaeffer is a Jewish activist and the organizer of the largest group of Americans to go to Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron during the Disengagement this past summer.
Anonymous
We don’t have to pray for him to rest in peace, he is a jew after all (the bad he’s done). However like the Rebbe wished someone a Refuah Shlaima, and added that it should be a complete healing of even his attitudes and views. The same is with Sharon he should have a complete recovery in body and in mind and in heart. Moshiach Now!
Leib Schaeffer
Just to stress the POINT of my article: It is NOT about the bad that Sharon has DONE. The emphasis is the destruction that will TAKE PLACE due to an overwhelming "compassionate" vote for Sharon’s party. Kadima/Kadisha has as its main agenda the official division of Jerusalem. With the physical removal of Sharon from olam hazeh, psychologically, Jews can move on and rationally vote for the politicians THEMSELVES.
CBS from Worcester
B"H
I’ve yet to hear any Rabbanim comment about the significance of Sharon’s being stricken ill occuring on Hey Teves, the most significant Yom Tov for Lubavitchers today, in our generation. Didan Natzach’s message of "we our victorious" and that Hashem’s judgement was clear and irrevocable, should certainly be considered when we recognize that Sharon was not simply stopped politically on Hey Teves, he was physically felled. While we don’t, chas v’shalom, paskin on another Yid’s tzuris as to why something not good may have happened, I would like to hear from our Beis Din what they believe to be the correlation between Hey Teves and the downfall of a Yid who has caused more suffering, sorrow, destruction and loss of life than any Jewish leader in recent history. Clearly, the brachos of Hey Teves stand for all time, and any honest Chabadnik must look at the facts. In addition, I think that those who unequivically give a knee-jerk response and say of course we must daven and say tehillim for him because he is a Yid, regardless of his past actions, may have misplaced feelings of compassion and Ahavas Yisroel. Why? Because, if there was a person who , G-d forbid, was responsible for the tearing down of the Crown Heights mikvaos, of the shteibels and, Chas v’shalom, of 770 itself, not one Lubavitcher in his or her right mind would say, "yes, it’s a travesty and oh so painful, but pray for this person’s wellfare!" Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of all of the Yidden in Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron and remember the sickening images from the summer. Maybe too much time has elapsed and we forget the anguish. But if it were our own family, our own home handed over to murderers while we carried our children out with just a few bare posessions, how many of us would be so self-righteous to say,"Just daven for this despot’s teshuva." I don’t think many or any. Be honest. And Mr. Schaeffer’s point is what this rasha’s agenda is capable of in the future. How much more devastation will we stand for? Lubavtich response has been way too passive and complacent. If the Rebbe were physically here in a way that we could see with our own eyes, people’s reactions would be much different, and I think much more appropriately militant and less politically correct, as the Rebbe would guide us to see the true reality, may it be soon.
Reb Nachum
You’re all being fools, and shaming The Rebbe and Hay Teves along with him.
Ariel Sharon has had controversial policies, it’s true. But to wish him death because you disagree with his outlook on politics is rediculous and, sadly, indicative of many Chabadniks I know recently. This disgusting display of baseless hatred has to stop. And don’t any of you dare to take The Rebbe’s name and slap it on one of your rediculous philosophies of hate. The Rebbe would have prayed for a Yid because he’s a Yid. It’s very simple. I can’t believe the things people say sometimes!
Tom
As an avid reader of crownheights.info, I take offense at your posting of this article.
"For the sake of millions of Jewish lives that will be in immediate danger, I offer one prayer in Ariel Sharon’s behalf: May he soon rest in peace."
Such words are against the Torah, and against Judaism. Regardless of the evils that he has commited, and we must continue to fight that Kadima falls apart, as Jews we do not with death on anyone.
You may be right that as mortals it is hard to imagine this man doing teshuva. But we are nothing more than mortals, flesh and blood. We are not G-d, nor do we understand his ways.
And to the author of this article I say, look into the Torah, look into the Rebbe’s teachings. If you follow the Torah and Mitzvot, you will bring peace to Eretz Yisrael. Wishing death upon Sharon will get you nowhere, who knows if the next guy will be any better…
A little bit of Emuna and a lot of prayers, may we merit the coming of Moshiach now!
Leibel Katz
Dear Editor,
Many views have been voiced within the geater Chabad community about this issue.
The dangerous desecration of the Rebbe and everything the Rebbe stands for that this (obviously) psychologicaly disturbed young man stands to wreack through his horrific rhetoric is frightening.
The Rebbe never sid such things about ANY JEW. Not those that desecrated Mihu Yehudi – Shleimus HoAm, not those that uprooted Yidden from Eretz Yisroel and not even for those that deliberately allowed tens of thousands of Jews to go to the concetration camps hy"d.
We just don’t think (and deffinitlt don’t speak) that way about a Jew. Period.
Please, please, please rmove this article.
The responsibility is yours.
Paul Freedman
A secular Jew, I believe that it is unlikely that Sharon will be able recover from his coma in any event. He did not merely have a major stroke–but sufered major trauma to his brain through continuous internal bleeding. Medically speaking, this is a very traumatic thing to happen to a human being. He may even had already slipped permanently and without realistic hope for recovery into what is called a "persistent vegetative state." I think Kadima’s support will not be because of nostalgia for Sharon or because Sharon would have given his "blessing" to its political program (Sharon was not a Rebbe, but a politician, and I don’t get the feeling that Israeli voters will feel they should do things because "Sharon would have wanted it.") People will either support the ideas that Olmert has (which were mostly his, anyways, I think, before Sharon adopted them) or they won’t.
ohhhhhhhhhhh
chill!!!! chill!!!!!! chill!!!!!!!!!!! cool out!!!!!!!!! calm it noone’s dying!!!! ( unless you really pray for it)
Paul Freedman
Editor, I personally did not speak of dying, only of failure to recover from a non-conscious state.