                   The New Year brings New Hope
                      by Gary M. Cooperberg
September 1994                                       Tishrei 5755

     It has been a difficult, unbelievable year.  We have witnessed a steady and consistent
decline in Jewish self respect which appears to have no bounds.  Given just the cold facts, it is
easy to understand how so many good people are questioning the authenticity of Jewish
Destiny.  
     Despite the many mistakes we made in the early years after the rebirth of the Jewish
state, there was always an unquestioned shared belief, by all Jews, that we were witnessing a
Divine process.  We had plenty of problems, but we had shared goals and a shared
understanding of the direction in which we were going.  Today those shared feelings are gone.
     While, indeed, Jewish Destiny is in full swing and even nearing completion, most of us
have fallen prey to a newly discovered pessimism.  This feeling of national hopelessness is the
natural result of all these years of attempted perversion of the genuine zionist process.  Rather
than recognize and work with the Divine process of Jewish return, our leadership has
consistently denied the Divine element and tried to turn zionism into a mundane, imitation of
other national liberation efforts.  This attempt was doomed to failure even before it began.
     Zionism is not subject either to democratic ratification, nor to the whims of those who
assume positions of leadership.  It is a plan authored by the Creator of the Universe and
destined to be fulfilled, with or without our agreement.
     As we approach the dramatic climax of a two thousand year old saga, it really is not
hard to see proof of Divine interference.   Because we refuse to see the obvious miracles,
including the beginning of the ingathering of the exiles; the reestablishment of Jewish
sovereignty in our ancient homeland; and, indeed, our continued daily existence in the face of
so many who would prefer to see us disappear, we are now witnessing even more unique
miracles.
     Were we truly deserving, those miracles would be awesome and obvious to all. 
Instead they instill fear and trepidation.  A truly believing Jew reacts to fear with trust in
HaShem as his protector.  Even these terrible challenges, which seem to put our very existence
on the line, is a gift from the G-d of Israel to his people.  If we cannot muster the proper faith
by accepting his miracles, perhaps, when we are faced with apparent imminent destruction, we
will find that faith.
     On the first night of Slichos, which, in years gone by, used to find me praying with the
large minyan inside the Machpela building in Hebron, this year found me standing among a
crowd of thousands outside the building.  While, for hundreds of years prior to Jewish
liberation, Jews were prohibited by goyim from approaching any closer than the seven steps on
the outer eastern wall, today the Jewish army refuses to let us even approach the building.
     As I stood outside in the Hebron darkness staring at the brightly illuminated Herodian
building from among the crowds in the street, I could feel a sense of united prayer which I had
never sensed in the past.  The words were blurred as several minyans intermingled.  From the
sfardi minyans the blasts of the shofar only accented the feeling of imploring Divine aid.  Jews
from all backgrounds united to cry out to their Creator on the very soil where Caleb ben
Yephunneh fell on his face and implored the G-d of Abraham to save him from the wicked
counsel of the ten spies.
     Yeshivat Kiryat Arba has always been on the forefront in the battle to return Jewish life
and Jewish self respect to our holy city.  On every fast day our boys and our Roshei Yeshiva,
Rav Dov Lior and Rabbi Eliezer Waldman, would daven the mincha prayers in the large Hall
of Isaac.  Since we have been barred from entering the building, we have come as close as the
army permits and offer our prayers there, in the streets of Hebron.  Physical bodies can be barred
entrance, but the Jewish spirit knows no bounds.  All Jewish prayer, from all over the world, first
travels to the Cave of Machpelah before ascending on high.  No army, Jewish or otherwise, can
ban this free access of Jewish prayer to the Cave of our forefathers.  
     We understand the confusion which confounds and befuddles those who pretend to lead
our tiny country.  We also understand the greatness which stands before each and every Jew in the
world as redemption rapidly approaches.  We will not allow the frustration inspired by our foolish
leaders to cause us to quarrel with our fellow Jews, nor to reject the miracle of Jewish return. 
Our boys continue to serve proudly in the only Jewish army in the world.  We will never permit a
foreign perverted morality to override the eternal values of our Torah.  It is only from our Torah
that we find the direction which will lead us to genuine peace.  No matter how desperate things
may appear, the real power lies with us. 
     While we never would have elected to do so, this year my special "vatiken" minyan which
begins in the predawn hours, offered our prayers outside the Machpelah building.  Although it is a
disgrace that a Jewish government can see fit to ban Jews from this building on our Holy days, it
may well be that even this humiliation has its purpose.  Aside from arousing our hearts to
recognize that what we had taken for granted for so many years, the right to freely enter that
building at any time, was not an automatic right, it may also be that we were praying in a place
which separated us from the genuine Cave of Machpelah.  Perhaps the place where we were
forced to move our prayers is, indeed, in closer proximity to the genuine burial place of our
Fathers and Mothers.  Perhaps this year, the heartfelt prayers of Jews who sincerely fear Divine
Judgment, together with blasts from the shofar which pierce through to the very cave and evoke
assistance from Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaacov, will be the little extra needed to herald the
arrival of the true Redeemer of Israel.