              New Year Reflections from Machpelah 
                     by Gary M. Cooperberg
                       September 12, 1994
                                
     For nearly thirteen years now I have been waking up every morning, before dawn, and
going down to the Machpelah building in Hebron to pray.  While many look at this behavior,
much as others see living in Eretz Yisrael, as a "sacrifice", the fact is that it is a special
privilege for a Jew to be able to do such a thing. This privilege has been made more evident
since last Purim when it was taken from us by a frightened Prime Minister.  
     The daily minyan, in which I participate, is a Sfardi one.  This has always presented
problems for me on Rosh HaShanna and Yom Kippur as the order of prayer is significantly
different then.  Fortunately, about seven years ago, a number of young Ashkenazi Jews
decided to form a vatiken minyan especially for the high holidays.  Somehow the honor of
b'aal tekiah, the sounder of the shofar, was bestowed upon me.  One of the organizers of the
minyan, a brilliant young rabbi, Rav Ido Elba, gave me halachic instruction prior to the
holiday, and was the one who called out the notes when it was time to sound the shofar.
     I saw Rav Elba at our early minyan right after we finished the ritual absolution of vows
following davening on the morning of erev Rosh Hashannah.  He gave me a few last minute
reminders of minor halachic points concerning the sounding of the shofar, and we exchanged
good wishes for the New Year.  
     The next morning my special minyan gathered in the pre-dawn darkness next to the
Hebron Yeshiva opposite the Machpelah building in Hebron.  The IDF would not even let us
come close to the seven steps where even the goyim had permitted us to pray before we had
control of our holy city.  I looked for Rav Elba.  He wasn't there.  I was later told that he had
been arrested and placed into administrative detention by the Israeli General Security Services!
     How low have we sunk?  How is it possible that a Jewish government would arbitrarily
arrest and imprison a Jew exactly on the high holidays?  Perhaps, had such a person been
caught in the act of perpetrating a terrible crime, one could understand such a thing.  But the
people from Kiryat Arba who were trapped like rats by our security specialists were not as
much as charged with a crime!  What we have here is an active terror campaign by the Rabin
government designed to weaken the resolve of all Jews who choose to live in Judea, Samaria
and the Gaza Strip.
     As the sky gradually lightened I stared ahead of me at the Machpelah building.  I
envisioned generations of Jews who must have gathered here in years long gone by.  I thought
of the countless unknown Jews who had been beaten and murdered here throughout the
centuries.  And I reflected upon a sweet, holy young Jew who willingly sacrificed his very life
here last Purim, in a desperate effort to redeem what was left of Jewish self-respect.
     The Rabin government sought to humiliate us in retribution for Dr. Goldstein's
effective humiliation of it.  But it failed miserably.  Just about a year ago Dr. Goldstein
presented a newly written sefer Torah to the Machpelah sanctuary in memory of Rabbi Meir
Kahane.  I clearly remember the glow on his smiling face as he carried the scroll from Kiryat
Arba through the streets of Hebron to the Machpelah building, accompanied by singing and
dancing throngs of elated Jews.
     As the shacharit prayers were coming to an end, the Torah scrolls were brought out
from the Yeshiva.  I noted with special joy that one of the scrolls was the one dedicated by Dr.
Goldstein.  As a courtesy for blowing the shofar, I was called up to the Torah.  As I listened to
the reading, the words of Avimelech to Avraham Avinu rang out in my ears, "G-d is with you
in everything that you do". Gen.21 vs.22.
     To me that was a special message from Baruch.  It matters not who opposes us, be it
Arab or Jew.  If we follow the path of Torah, no power on earth can as much as slow us
down.  
     Those who were arrested were placed in solitary confinement; not permitted legal
counsel; not permitted contact with family, who were not as much as informed of their
whereabouts, much less that they had been arrested; and who were submitted to torture in
order to get them to "confess" to concocted allegations against them.
     Why were the Mannings arrested on erev Pesach?  Why were these precious young
Jews pulled away from their families on erev Rosh Hashanna?  Why is Kiryat Arba especially
singled out as a "nest of Jewish extremism"?
     The answer to all of these questions is the same.  The town of Kiryat Arba was
established as an example of Jewish faith in the process of Jewish return to all of our promised
inheritance.  It stands as a defiant proof of this G-dly process.  Every Jew who lives here is a
constant reminder, to those Jews who would like to forget, that the entire concept of a reborn
Jewish State is fulfillment of Divine Prophesy rather than "diplomacy" or physical might.
     When our puffed up "peace" makers run to Olso, Egypt, Amman and Damascus they
bring only shame upon themselves and their people.  Kiryat Arba is a physical reminder of the
shame they so arduously seek to deny.  Disbelief cannot live together in peace with faith.  As
such it seeks to undermine and destroy it.  Kiryat Arba is the physical symbol of Faith, and, as
such, the most bitter enemy of those who would deny Jewish destiny.
     This is why, from his very first day in office, Rabin mounted a relentless vilification
campaign against the settlement movement, in general, and Kiryat Arba, in particular.  It is a
campaign doomed to failure because it is waged against the Creator of the Universe whose
Will is clearly to redeem His people, not to create a new one.
     The smile on Baruch Goldstein's proud young face is indelibly etched in my mind.  He
will live on forever and will be among the first to return to us in the coming days of
redemption and resurrection.  Let his message to us renew our resolve to stand up to all forms
of oppression, "G-d is with you in everything that you do".