Yeshiva of Newark Podcast
Emeritus Rex-תכלה שנה וקללתה-Klal Yisroel's General Assembly could Birth a New Reality
(upbeat music) You're listening to the Yeshivov New Work podcast. I'm your host and curator, Rabbi Hram Kivolovich, and I hope you enjoy this episode. (upbeat music) 40 years ago, this is America's Rex with Rabbi Rubei Nushua Pupko of Beth Israel, Beth Aaron, Coach St. Luke's premier synagogue. Rabbi Pupko, this will be our last program before Rosh Hashanah. I think we can, both of us before we even start the program can say, "Yes, tikloshanah ukoloy seerah." - Yeah. - And untouchion pay dialed. But as we approach tuffion pay, hey, some stuff is going on. Are you paying any attention at all to the General Assembly at the UN this week? - Yeah, sure. I have to tell you that once he got struck me, I mean, it was come out. And what seems to be the conversation that is dominating, at least the sidelines of the General Assembly, is this conversation about a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, the most deranged supporter of the Palestinians who justified October 7th. What justification is there for Hezbollah having joined? And for the last nearly a year, Hezbollah has been completely dedicated to bombing northern Israel. Whatever you want to claim about, you know, the oppression of Palestinians has nothing to do with Hezbollah, absolutely nothing. If you read Dexter Filkins in the New Yorker back and I think it was July or August, he wrote a very long article. Dexter Filkins, no friend of Israel, has been reporting from the region for decades. And, you know, the upshot of his, you know, article is that Hezbollah is nothing but an agent of Iran. I know we all know that, but the degree of direct control is astonishing. And Israel finally said, is enough, is enough. And they went ahead and they did some brilliant stuff with the pagers. And that was a prelude to this massive air attack. Israel is more than happy to have a diplomatic solution. Diplomatic solution means moving Hezbollah off the border. And the purpose of moving them off the border is not to stop missile attacks. 'Cause if they're off the border, they can still fire missiles. The issue of moving them off the border is to make sure that an October 7th like attack does not reoccur of the northern border. Let me explain what that means. And the reason Hezbollah is so reluctant. When Israel was in size on the Lebanon, as they were from the early '80s to, hey, had Barack pulling out the year 2000, the justification for Hezbollah's existence was to fight the Israeli occupation. When that came to an end, their justification was to protect the border. In other words, they have to in some ways justify their existence in Lebanon, their usurping of Lebanese governmental authority in Lebanon. And now their justification is they're defending the border. Once they're moved off the border, their argument to be there to exist evaporates is why, which is why they're so reluctant despite getting bombed and bombed in a very, very severe way by Israel over the last week. If the pressure that Israel's putting on them right now drives them to move away from the border, that's fine. But if not, they'll be a grounded nation. Nobody wants a grounded nation. But instead of discussing the terrible consequences of Hezbollah not capitulating to Israeli attacks, they're the general assembly of the French, especially the Americans, are talking about a ceasefire. The American representative has been in Lebanon all year trying to negotiate a ceasefire to no avail. And finally, Israelis gave up on that effort and started applying its own pressure to either try to come to a diplomatic resolution or to, as a prelude to a ground attack, instead of all that, which should be the conversation, the French actually used a word which is astonishing. The French this morning are talking about imposing a ceasefire. Who the hell are the French? Who do they imagine themselves to be in the world where they talk about imposing something on the state of Israel? I mean, it's delusional. So when talk of the ceasefire got back to Israel, the entire political spectrum, and I clued the left in this, exploded in rage. That we, in other words, the goal of the war now is to get Israelis back to their homes and to simply freeze the situation when finally Israel's putting pressure on Hezbollah's insane. The pressure should be on one side or one side only to move away from the border so that everybody, the hundreds of thousands of Shiites inside the Lebanon can go home, 60,000 Jews can go home in northern Israel. All they have to do is move away from the border, which is what they're supposed to do anyway under General Assembly Resolution 1701, in which Hezbollah extensively accepted after the last war in 2006. The UN has failed in its efforts. The Americans have spent billions of dollars on that, you know, fill on that UN group to keep Hezbollah away from the border, and they did nothing. They've done nothing. And the other way to do it is either to send in as Brent Stevens suggests NATO troops or troops from other Arab countries to impose a security zone in southern Lebanon 'cause if the world won't do it, Israel's gonna have to simply reoccupy. - You mentioned, of course, from October 8, the constant rocket fire, but we know that it's only been a pittance of what they really have. I think I saw articles this week saying that the complete arsenal that Hezbollah has is massive and tremendous. - Not only the number, but the quality of the weapons has increased dramatically. If precision-guided missiles, they have anti-tank missiles. No, it's the creation of Iran. And it is there as a deterrence. So in case Israel starts seriously considering attacking, the Iranian nuclear sites, it's there as either a deterrence or to make sure Israel pays the heavy price after. And there's no question that what Iran is interested in is bothering Israel now, but maintaining Hezbollah's military force, which means they don't want to avoid war right now. They want to keep those weapons for the day they need them. And therefore, if Israel does actually go ahead with the ground invasion, then we probably can expect some of those big guns to be unleashed. What about Biden's speech to the General Assembly? Did you listen to it? - That's what he always does. He says, you know, it's terrible what Hamas did. He supported Israel, blah, blah, blah. But then he goes on to ramble about a two-state solution at about, there's been enough killing and whatever, blah. You know what I mean? If he got to support Israel, support Israel, just otherwise the sit-down and shut up. - Well, let's also talk about the fact that he met with Zelensky. You know, Zelensky is one of ours. He's never denied his Jewishness. Zelensky has been sort of interestingly politicking campaigning for Harris. Zelensky went to Pennsylvania, ostensibly for some munitions factory over there. But to really talk about the, and support the Democratic ticket, it would seem that they feel that Trump would try to impose or push upon them a type of settlement to this war that would mean ceding Ukraine in territory. - You know, it's a dissolved world we're living in where the Republican candidate is perceived to be less strong in opposing Russian adventurism. But that's the world we're living in. Listen, we're going through a spasm of American isolationism. We know the bitter harvest of that in the past, in the 1930s, and, you know, after the, you know, the received failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, the appetite for foreign entanglements is certainly diminished. Bottom line is, the Biden administration has been extraordinarily weak. It began with the retreat from Afghanistan sending a message of weakness and incompetence to the world, which certainly emboldened the Russians in Ukraine and Hamas in Gaza. But the key, the Avia visa toma, the key crime of the Biden administration, so desperate were they to reverse everything Trump had done. That they went ahead and they lifted sanctions on the Iranian oil, on Iranian oil experts, which has funded to the sort of billions of dollars Iranian mischief in the region and beyond. 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Of straight, intelligent, humorous discussion, lectures, debate, and inquiry, while the destructive waters of ignorance and identity politics, cyber-bullying, crash around us, your generous contributions will seal and galvanize this arc 'til it comes to a satisfying rest at an era of Moya or its dea, heralding Mashiach, and Hera, be a manu, amen. (upbeat music) As I said, it's right before Ashishana. Obviously, the erytistrol is on edge. You have a son who has been deployed into the North. He went up this morning, we're talking on Thursday, and he's part of the rabbinical unit that has the worst job of the IDF, by far not the most dangerous, but the worst job in terms of dealing God forbid in the case of casualties, to make sure a floor is done in the appropriate way. This is in preparation for possible ground invasion. - Is the reggish that it's gonna happen? Are the religious Jews feeling a sense of terror and Pahkad coming into this version of Shano? - I don't care, Pahkad, I think this country is still deeply traumatized from October the 7th, an entire generation. Deeply scarred, I had the opportunity this week to listen to three young people who were on Qisufim on October the 7th with a slide-by-slide in a minute-by-minute explanation of what happened that day, these kids are deeply wounded emotionally, and they spoke brilliantly about what had happened in a comprehensive way about all the friends they've lost, and it's an absolute harm. As dysfunctional as the government appears to be at times, the people of Israel, secular, religious, from every area of the spectrum have responded with great heroism and quiet dignity, and the morale is up. I mean, the only sector of Israel that is-- - I know where this is going, yes. - The heart rate in there. - You're ill, who will look back on this year, not as-- - My ilk, my ilk. - You're ill, yes, I like saying the word ilk, who will look at this year, not as age with the boss or as voila, but will look back on this year simply as the time the Israeli government tied to destroy Torah, and which is bizarre and insane and delusional and actually wicked. Listen, my son will likely be away from all first, Shano. And my first instinct is to go there to be with the grandchildren. You know, I'm around by some, that's certainly, you know, not a viable option for me. But I'm not worried, 'cause I know how many friends they have and I know how everyone will growl together and everything will be fine, because they won't be allowed to show Russia, Shano. I know that they dare of each other. I know that, and that's a great comfort. But again, generally speaking, the morale of the country is wonderful. Listen, at moments like this, I miss the former rabbi of the Khabad community. Rabbi Madasman al-Schnarasan, you may recall, would always come up with a pithy acronym for the year to hate Shano's this, right? The tushin, not all of us, to hate Shano's and end of the flaws. This year is gonna be tushin, pay hay. And I wonder what he would have said. And I think what he would have said is to hate Shano's Pupko Yajid Haalil. So I think that's clearly what he would have said and he's still been with us. So hopefully that will be okay. - Well, you know, there is, of course, this idea that perhaps our Avinam Al-Kainu, that we say, on Rosh Hashanah, the Shabali Al-Aqat, sort of indicates that it's a bamokam Haalil, it's sort of a Haalil, an inner Haalil, I think as Ralph Salvagek said, that he of Simcha, is not as Simcha Yaseira, like the Ramban says, but there is a sense of Simcha in knowing what our purpose is. - Well, you would be that the pay stands for Pupko, you do agree. - Yeah. - Listen, I think what's important for everybody is to understand that the sound of the chauffeur, the sound of the chauffeur ultimately, as the Mart tells us with the mother of Sisra, is a call for connection, a call for, it's a longing, it's a sound of longing. And I think what we should be longing for obviously is a stronger connection to God, stronger connection to each other, stronger connection to our true self. And the way we accomplish that, the vehicle for that is that being together, initial, and diving. And if the greater extent to which we are unified before God, the greater is our claim to God's rasming. And that's the equation. The more we're together, the more we have the kaiya kaiya soul, the more we can expect from a kaiya's moral. - Let me take a page out of your duroshir. You mentioned, of course, that the 100 kaiyaoys align to the sounds of the kaiyaoys aligned to the weeping and hope that this Russia's mother had, as she looked out the window, hoping for her general to come back, her son. I would mention also the hazal that says that the 100 kaiyaoys are the maya poyos that a woman in childbirth screams. And then you have that one last burst where you can hear the sound, of course, of new life. And this has been a pangs of difficulty, but we can maybe turn them into the pangs of childbirth. We know that Rosh Hashan, of course, (speaking in foreign language) it's the day that is the anniversary of creation. And just like the creation of man, the greatest achievement in God's creation, we can hope that this Rosh Hashanah could also be, despite all those birth, it should be birth pangs. And we can have a leda of an (speaking in foreign language) a leda of the world that we describe and are fearless of (speaking in foreign language) from everybody here at Emeritus Ricks. (speaking in foreign language) So we'll catch you Mr. Sham in Tuption Pei Hei. Take care everybody, be well. (speaking in foreign language) (upbeat music) - Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I hope you liked what you heard. If you did, please take a moment to share this, or any of the many episodes available on our platform with friends in order to help grow our community. 'Til next time, Shalom. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)