Category: General

Leah’s Blog

The crown of Malchut

A person, place and time make up the foundations of a story. When you’re the person that’s placed in that time and that place, with enough plot and theme you’ve got a story to tell. The place we live and the time we live in is not just a personal story, not just “my own” story, but a narrative vital in times like these. Free choice is a realm of this “mundane” world that runs what seems, according to nature. You get what you pay for, but is there a deeper level to our reality, a realm of Providence that had us in this specific place and time? In my personal story, it’s made me who I am, this time and place. It’s made it my mission. Mankind is in one sense at a super advanced level of technology and modernization, yet on another faced with disease and moral bankruptcy that questions at times like these the very platform of our lives. The question arises, can we stand up to the challenges we face and lead the world to truth and light in these times? Can we push against the tides that come crashing down on the truth, so covered in a sense yet so revealed to those that choose to have the eyes to see it. Nitzan Darshan Leitner, the CEO of Shurat HaDin recently quoted George Orwell who so prophetically said, ” As mankind leaves the truth, it will hate those who safeguard it.” This is the story of Zion. The free choice is up to mankind to recognize the light of Zion or to try to put it out. As you can see, no-one remains indifferent.When the United Nations decided on the Partition Plan in November 1947, the military campaign began on Jerusalem. It fell under siege as the Arab Legion and the Jordanian armies pushed through the northern border of Jerusalem where entire neighborhoods were abandoned by Jewish families. Some of those have hit the news now, but in a twisted mention, not politically correct, nor factually. What had been rebranded into Sheikh Jarach or Silwan to name a few of those neighborhoods that were really Simon the Just (Shimon HaTzaddik) and Ir David- all settled by Jews in the late 1800’s and re- invented after the Jews were thrown out and illegal Arab squatters took over. A severe shortage of food, Jewish soldiers and ammunition had Jerusalem’s residents wondering if they would make it through the attack. Many places fell including Gush Etzion and many died in the siege. People don’t know history and history repeats itself, just the people are changed through layers of time. The places remain, the plot thickens. Today, as then, it doesn’t matter if you live in Itamar, Haifa, Jaffa, Givatayim, Lod or Mount Scopus. Hebrew University where a whole staff of liberal professors teach, had their car windows bashed by the marauding masses last night. Lod, where a synagogue was torched last night- just five minutes from Ben Gurion International airport; Many Arabs cannot conceptualize that the Jewish people have returned to her crown. They educate to hate, In Gaza they pay for terror tunnels and missiles instead of even building their own towns. They surround themselves with children- many times their own as they shoot and terrorize the innocent. Their own people are held captive yet Israel bears the blame. Why? The question is – what can WE do about it? There are pawns and there are makers. Here’s where the story takes momentum. Fire bombs and boulders were thrown from the Temple Mount unto peaceful worshippers who came to pray at the Kotel but Psaki calls for both sides to restrain. Hundreds of missiles aimed at Israel and the UN calls for ISRAEL to hold back.The Land and people of Israel are not like any other nation. You can’t remain apathetic to her and you must choose a side. In a rare display of solidarity to Israel, the former POTUS gave us fresh air and hope. In the elections that followed American Jews largely voted left. Now their government will have to decide what to choose in this disaster that came upon us in only four months into the new presidency. American Jews are quickly being brainwashed into apartheid ideas about Israel, how we took the poor Palestinians land (oh it was just SO built up what can I tell you.) American Jews are at a lightning speed leaving masoret (Tradition) and identity and opting to fight battles for minorities who really are majorities. They are demanding universal Tikkun Olam in name only and have fallen off the track of true Tikkun Olam. As they assimilate, we need to illuminate. As they know Duo Lippa we know HaTikvah. The Balflour declaration is not what entitled Israel to Israel but the Torah and Hashem. At the Peal Commission Ben Gurion screamed holding up his bible- ” This is our deed to the Land!”I will not apologize for the true identity of Israel as she morphs from wandering Jew with a stick, with a golden spoon in her mouth that built empires wherever she went and blessed them but was later banished. Time after time, Spain, Germany, and now -we built this land and they want to throw us out. This time though- no can do. Providence will have it otherwise. Prophecy is indeed coming true as Jeremiahs vineyards burn, as Ruth’s wheat fields leave acrid smells that reach Tel Aviv. How do we act in this story!On a mundane level, Israel has no working government. Political stalemates stagnant true responses to attacks. In this blog I bore eyewitness to the bulldozing of the walls surrounding Joshuas Altar, the Hashmonean fortress of Avimelech plowed down, Sebastia looted, and more attacks on our heritage sites like never before with zero response by our government. I have told you about a complete takeover of “area C’ by the funding through the European Union and the direct command of Fahtach, Jihad, and Hamass to cancel our flag dance in Jerusalem on Jerusalem day! We folded, they won. The families of “Shiekh Jarach” that finally won their case to return to their rightful properties were told not to provoke and wait on re- entering. In a humiliating bowing to the instructions of Hamass and constricting of our sovereign right, we were kicked in the face as rockets nevertheless did not distinguish between Itamar and Lod.

On the Torah time-frame, we approach the holiday of Shavuot. This is the time represented by Malchut when the bride wears the crown, the time of King David and the story of Ruth. This is time we read about a righteous gentile who chose to stand with Israel. We read about the canopy of the wedding between Hashem and Israel. As we approach Malchut and the inner essence of King David, the ultimate warrior perspective of the war of our enemies roaring as the horn of oil pours over our heads- you me, how you fight this war comes into play. This is the time we stood as “One man with one heart”. There is only one Israel and I hope Anthony Blinken realizes this as he is reading the portions of the Torah that stress Shechem Chevron and Jerusalem as the vertebrae. One man with one heart – we don’t differentiate between Itamar and Givatayim or Chevron from Raanana. These are not “territories”, but they are the HEART OF ISRAEL! Our enemies don’t know the difference. You shouldn’t either. We are one man with one heart. First recognize us, then do something about it. The time is ripe but the wheat is burning.What will you do about it.

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Chag Kasher Vesameyach xoxoxoxoxox Leah

Terumah 2021

This blog was originally intended to share the experiences and pleasantries of a Jewish woman living in the heart of biblical Israel. I’m just an average simple person but I was given a huge task because my perspective is critical. Almost from the time we were able to return to the old stones that serve as living monuments of our heritage and history and that waited for me -yes me, I knew it was ordained. I might think that I have chosen this life- but it was predestined .Yes, for me- specifically- so that I can bring you fated testimony from the good, good Land. My friends, my experiences involve exposure to places where holiness is so thick you can cut it with a knife; but you have to first walk on the outer shells that cover these holy mountains, sometimes into creepy dangerous places. Not everyone is capable, for the times that doom. No, it doesn’t always feel good, even when it’s sacred ground and the two usually go together. My prayer is to have the knowledge and the foresight, to have complete familiarity with the hidden sparks trying to push their way out as they become revealed, in order to present to you the message of the time and place that this person- me- can deliver to you.  Today, on the anniversary of the Fogel family HY”D who were slaughtered in their home on a Shabbat evening right here on Itamar, I want to bring up the souls of other dear friends that lived and died here and paved the way for us and hopefully for you to even have the merit to live here. For nothing is more holy than life itself, yet those precious people died in a battle to unearth the dwelling places below from the outer shells of what we can only perceive. Today my blog will not be pleasant but I hope compelling. The murder of each of my friends managed to get out the good and the bad on social media platforms. On our many speaking trips there were personal meetings as well, and not in only one JCC but many, literal confrontations which I think for a change I share with you here. In places and countries everywhere, some cried, some hugged, some threw darts, some showed mild apathy. Many brainwashed people that came out of the camp for “Peace” actually came to fist fighting those in the crowd that did not agree with them. There were those that called the murdered “sacrifices” for peace. After the massacre here (and there were several) in a hall full to the brim at Yeshiva University I had to measure word for word as finally I came to empathetic ears but didn’t want to scare young Jews away. Sympathy was heartwarming but I wanted to empower them with the possibility that they too should and can return to Eretz Efrayim and Yehudah. Something happened in the years shortly after we left America for these rolling empty barren hills. As things became hunkered in here in the heartland and we became a fact on the ground returning and reclaiming the land of the bible, to the places read about in the Shabbat portion, American Jews ( not all I must point out) came to view us as the enemy and became obsessed with the “poor displaced Arabs”. Not even knowing simple facts that close to a million Jews had been thrown out of the Arab countries they had lived in for centuries, the “Palestinians” became the victims in every narrative. In a horrific denial of the facts that terrorists were being payed lavish salaries from the monies the U.S. government allocated for their welfare and growth, not to mention the building of infrastructure of terror tunnels and arsenals of weapons – still WE, yes, you Leah Goldsmith- your word is TABOO and we will ghost you if you say anything POLITICAL. I became an “extreme religious zealot” and labeled the biggest threat to peace in the Middle East. So in essence a gag order was placed upon the telling tale of the holy sites and foundation stones of Hashem’s everlasting Sanctuary here, right here in the heart of Israel. After these trips to the diaspora, I would always come home to be part of the chosen few who disappear into a cloud on the mountaintop. It was a privilege to be like Moses and I understood more his challenge in the teaching of the obstinate masses that voiced doubt and grievance all along the journey. Luckily I was able to know that at the end of days “the truth is hidden and the arrogance will increase. The government will turn into heresy and there will be no reproach. The meeting places of the scholars will become a bordello, the highland will lie desolate, the wisdom of the authors will stink, sin fearing people will be detested and the face of the generation will be like the face of a dog. On whom can we depend? Only upon our Father in heaven.” (Sotah 9:15) Yep, our sages knew all of this way back then. All the way back in 35 C.E. they said that Messiah will come when Jews collaborate with their enemies and religious despair deepens. Another view: Until people completely despair of redemption! Some face the messianic age with anticipation, others with dread. We face it ready to do His calling- here, right here in the pupil of Hashem’s eye. The question is- how do we “view” G-d’s presence as Joshua’s altar in the last week on Mount Ebal has been crushed into gravel by Arab bulldozers. Are we indeed a remote mountaintop or are we at the center of the camp? Now is a critical time to take a stance. These events have us asking about our heritage and our national spiritual identities.

Terumah. Hashem asks to build a sanctuary. Exodus 15:17- “You bring them and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, the place that You O Lord have made for you to dwell in”. Joshua’s altar, the first sanctuary built of unhewn stones. I have stood on the ramp and on the large stone slabs. Whitened with lime, the Torah was inscribed here. Cursed be he who removes his neighbor’s landmark. There are no lapis lazuli or gold or silver, only remnants of kosher bones, burnt offerings. There are no cherubs or gold plated acacia planks, only mossy stones, a rocky ramp. But now a bulldozer of iron has come to cut the stones of Joshua’s altar and this is the altar where my own Rabbi Binyamin Herling of blessed memory was offered up just days after the pillaging of the Tomb of Yosef HaTzaddik. In Terumah we collect for the sanctuary. Our silence is enabling the enemy to take it apart. 3,300 years later, The Shechinah never left this altar and His glory and presence is amongst us DESPITE this destruction, despite this murder in cold blood. When Hashem says “I will dwell therein among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel” these evil events may show our dream is lost, the silence in face of these atrocities will not change the everlasting plan- “There is a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones.” Not everyone can see calamity as a foreshadowing to rebirth. I behold the cataclysm on the Mount of the Curse, in the miracle of my life in it on it and know from this point the rotten fruit will now from the depths of the earth spring forth an upshoot – We are at the center of the camp. “Yosef!”, I scream!” I am back!” We will use these broken stones to build the house of David.

Shabbat Shalom, Leah