Welcome Back Cohen
I was excited to read in last week’s paper that Irwin Cohen would be writing a column again. After my father (Rabbi Sheldon Hirsch) was niftar nine-plus years ago, I wrote an article about him for the In Memoriam section of The Jewish Press. Shortly after, Mr. Cohen wrote a letter to the editor reminiscing about the time that he spent with my father in Fort Dix in 1964 while my father was the chaplain and Mr. Cohen was his assistant. I saved that letter and think about it often. I don’t know much about my father’s time in the army, and Mr. Cohen’s kind words gave me a glimpse into the man my father was before he became my father. Wishing Mr. Cohen many happy and healthy years with his new wife, and I look forward to reading his column.
Dr. Chani Hirsch Miller
Highland Park, N.J.
Gaza Is G-d’s Land
The front-page article in the February 14 edition of The Jewish Press (“Why Hamas Should Heed Trump’s Warnings,” by Dan Diker and Yoni Ben Menachem) references “U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate Gaza’s two million residents and rehabilitate the Strip…” May I add a word of caution to President Trump from someone who voted enthusiastically for him in all three elections: Eretz Yisrael is not for sale. It is not Greenland, nor Canada, nor the Panama Canal. It is the land owned by G-d, the land given to the Jewish nation by G-d, the same G-d who turned your head and saved your life from the assassin’s bullet. Therefore, pursue the population transfer and encourage the Jewish settlement and development of all parts of liberated Eretz Yisrael.
We welcome the President’s support, but the religious obligation to settle the land must proceed – hopefully with, but if need be, without the President’s blessings.
Gaza is not a political issue; it is a religious issue. At the National Prayer Breakfast on February 6, President Trump urged Americans to “bring G-d back into our lives.” Precisely – G-d blesses America when America blesses the Jews.
David Ferster
Great Neck, N.Y.
Arabs Not Prepared To Live In Peace
The Katz and Silberstein article (“In The Middle East, Proper Education Is The Key To A Better Future” by Dr. Shmuel Katz and Chaim Silberstein, Feb. 7) is one that I have been waiting for with great anticipation. They articulated the hard truths of achieving peace in the Middle East. In short, the truth is that the only party that desires peace and to live in harmony with their neighbors is Israel.
Those that either naively or proactively and maliciously continue to push for a two-state solution completely ignore the facts on the ground. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and many Iranian proxies simply wish to destroy Israel and kill Jews. Their societies and culture promote hatred of Jews to the point of murder. The widely disseminated phone call of a Gazan youth to his family bragging about how he had killed ten Jews with his own hands on October 7 was quite telling and representative of the mindset and indoctrination of Arabs in Gaza and elsewhere. As a matter of fact, there were quite a large number of “innocent” Gazans who participated in the atrocities of October 7.
There can be no two-state solution or peace with murderous and barbaric societies such as those currently in existence in much of the Arab world today. The incessant cycle of Hamas murdering or attempting to murder Jews and Israel responding must end. It’s been said that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. Different approaches need to be taken to achieve true peace and coexistence.
The authors correctly assert that the very core of the educational systems in Gaza and elsewhere must cease to be based on teachings that reflect intolerance and hatred of Jews and Israel. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that much of the Arab leadership has the courage and fortitude to facilitate this. This leaves Israel and the West with very challenging decisions to make. Terrorism must no longer be rewarded – it must be dissuaded by withholding financial and other incentives until such time that changes are made. One must also ask how Hamas leadership were all billionaires and laughing all the way to the bank with the feckless West’s money.
I crave very much the day that Arabs finally agree to live side by side with Israel, but we have a long way to go. May Hashem bring the geulah so that we may know true peace in our lifetimes.
George Weiss
Via E-mail
Key To Marriage Is Communication, Not Silence
In “The Art of Silence – Part II” on February 7, Rabbi Moshe Meir Weiss advised his female students that for success in marriage, “the best skill they could develop is to know how to keep their mouth shut at the right time.” He quoted the Vilna Goan that “[F]or every moment that a person muzzles his mouth from saying what he shouldn’t, he will merit the hidden ethereal light that neither any angel nor mortal creature can even fathom” and that through this he will be saved from Gehinnom and merit the Afterlife. Rabbi Weiss added the caveat, “If it’s something of a more serious and permanent nature, then while you or your spouse are in ‘emotion-mind,’ keep quiet and make up to talk things over when you’re both calm and willing to listen.”
There are, however, critical times when one must speak up. The Zohar on Tazria writes, “How severe is the punishment of the one who slanders. Similar is a punishment of one who has the opportunity to speak good. He has the potential to speak good, yet does not (for example, to strengthen and make his friend joyful)… How much more so, if people conduct themselves in devious ways, and one (a leader) is able to reprove them, yet he remains silent…” The Zohar cites an episode of a town leader who was stricken with severe facial blemishes due to his having the authority to admonish the public but refraining from doing so.
Communication is an essential key to marriage. When the doors are shut, so is the marriage.
Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Tanny
Montreal, Canada
