Focus on the carrot not the Stick | Posted by: Rabbi Y. Sakhai

Shalom to all,

I thought I should start my first post on this blog by speaking about the most recent news that seems to have everyone in tangles. Yes i am talking about everything that has happened in the Middle East in the course of the past two years and ending with the death of our worst enemy known since Hitler: Bin L. Some people are excited others simply on a high and a small fraction of people are just too busy to care. Which of these groups should we, as Jews, identify ourselves with?

I, personally, believe in the “none of the above” category. We, as Jews, have way too much responsibility towards the world to just sit around and think to ourselves "well what happens in the Middle East has nothing to do with me. why worry about something so out of our comfort zone?" the prophet Daniel saw this day coming thousands of years ago, and his advice about the matter is just golden. The prophet says that there will be a day when the eastern nations of the world will start to implode, and just when all the Jews feel "safe," all eyes will turn on them! And then there will be no refuge but from the G-d above.

So, I have this to say, to all those sitting and thinking that the Jews are finally out of the spotlight and that we are finally being understood: The only thing that we should NOT be doing is sitting idle and letting things run their course. We need prayer more than ever. We need a unified Jewish Nation, with a unified voice and that voice is prayer. It is one weapon that can never be taken from a Jew.

So, NO, I am not excited and happy about what the Middle East is going through. Don't be mistaken, I thank Go-d every single day that murderers like Bin L. have been brought to justice, but to sit back and laugh it off and think that the ultimate goal was reached, THAT I won't do. There is a much bigger goal here at hand and that is ultimate world peace and we the Jews are smack in the middle of it all. Hashem calls the Jews "a nation of priests and a holly people." Have we ever asked ourselves if we are the priests, then who are the laymen?? Who are the regular folk that we are sent to lead??? Rabbi Asher Wade says it beautifully, "The nations of the world are the Laymen."

We have been given a tremendous responsibility and to sit back and not use the only weapon that has worked for us for thousands of years is nothing more than pure selfish.

PRAYER

I pray that all of Am Yisrael's prayers should be answered so that we may merit the coming of Moshiyach, Amen.