Torah, life, choices...

As we enter the month of Nisan, the month of Jewish freedom, locally we have been celebrating the growth of Torah with both the recent Chag Hasemicha at YU’s RIETS, where 230 rabbis received ordination, and this week, in Woodmere, the Chanukat Habayit of a local Torah institution, with great joy and unity, the Yeshiva Gedolah of the Five Towns. As Rabbi Katzenstein said, we were able to see unity through Torah.

But globally, we see the world shuddering and quaking as terrorism and anti-Semitism rise up in country after country, with Israel attempting to stay safe in a very bad and threatening neighborhood.

The Arabs have issued the usual three rejections: that they would not recognize Israel as a Jewish state, that an agreement would not include a declaration to end the conflict and claims, and that they continue to insist on flooding Israel with millions of Arabs from outside the country as part of any agreement. Rumors are floating that Israel will release 400 terrorists and curtail needed home construction in exchange for continuation of fruitless peace talks with the Arabs and the release of Jonathan Pollard, who has previously said that he refuses to be released if it is in exchange for terrorists. In any event, Pollard is said to be eligible for parole in 2015.

From the Almagor terror victims’ association comes a visceral, searing cry to not free any more terrorists [its statement appears below]. It is known that the terrorists released to date have been celebrated in their communities and rewarded and a sizable number have returned to committing acts of terrorism.