Billboard of a Different Kind

Originally published on Sivan Rahav-Meir's Facebook page, translated by Hillel Fendel

Billboard outside the Yeshiva High School "Orot HaZor'im" 

The photo accompanying this article shows a billboard in a small moshav in the Galilee, just outside the Yeshiva High School "Orot HaZor'im." It shows students learning Talmud, a page from Tractate Shabbat, and the announcement that the school will soon begin studying the first chapter of that tractate. What are the sponsors trying to sell? Rabbi Gad Hermann of Orot HaZor'im told the story to popular speaker Sivan Rahav-Meir:

"At the end of last year, the billboard in question heralded with great excitement a new crime series on one of the cable television networks. Whoever came to the Yeshiva would see it. I once spoke to the students with sorrow that it seems to assume as a given that everyone is waiting breathlessly for the series to begin – as if, 'it is our life and we will discuss it day and night,' as we say in our prayers about the Torah.

I told them, 'Just imagine if billboards would feature other, more positive things that are about to begin, such as that our class is about to start studying the first chapter of Tractate Shabbat!'

It seems that the students truly took this to heart. During the summer vacation, without my knowledge, they saved up and chipped in to create this new billboard ad! They designed it, had it enlarged, and bought the space – for more than 2,000 shekels. On the first day of the new school year, I drove to the Yeshiva, and I simply couldn't believe my eyes! And like me are thousands of other drivers who pass that way every day in this month of Elul, seeing an ad like they never saw before!"

Sovereignty for the Jordan Valley?

Originally published in myesha.org.il, translated by Hillel Fendel

Map of the Jordan Valley

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced earlier this month that "conditions had ripened" for the application of Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea area. He said he would take this step almost immediately after the coming election, "if I am granted your trust and confidence." Though many accused him merely of electioneering, the very fact of the announcement held great significance.

Netanyahu explained the background of his plan: "We are aware that the U.S. President Trump is about to unveil his Deal of the Century, right after our elections. This presents us with a great challenge, as well as a great opportunity to apply our sovereignty in Judea, Samaria, and elsewhere – which I intend to do, in stages. There is one place where we can do this now, because the conditions have ripened: The Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea. This will be the first step…"

The Jordan Valley's critical strategic importance is undisputed. Any enemy attempt to invade Israel from the east would have to be executed through the narrow passes of the Judea/Samaria mountains, and Israeli control of the area would prevent this.

Yesha [Judea & Samaria] Council Chairman Chananel Durani said in response to Netanyahu's announcement, "This is a very important development, one that the settlement enterprise has hoped and worked for since its establishment. It is a historic and unprecedented event for the State of Israel – for sovereignty is the harbinger of the deepening and thickening of our presence in this area."

Even Labor Party leaders such as Yigal Alon and Yitzchak Rabin recognized the vital need to retain the Jordan Valley. During the Knesset debate on the Oslo Accords of 1995, Rabin declared: "Israel's defensible security border will be placed in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest sense of the term."