Our Children Are The Guarantors

Defending Zionism from its detractors. Anti-Zionism is a form of anti-Semitism. Let the other side apologize for a change.

Friday, February 02, 2007

The Meaning of “Light unto the Nations”

This is both a dvar Torah (a word from the Torah) for Shabbat and a refutation of an oft-made anti-Zionist charge. G-d’s word is the best defense of Zionism—that must never be forgotten.

G-d’s phrase to Isaiah about the Israelites, “A light unto the nations”, is frequently used by the detractors of Zionism to argue against Israel’s defensive measures against Islamic terrorism, such as the security fence (“Apartheid Wall”) and the checkpoints, as well as to demand that Israel be the first to make concessions, apologies and all manner of capitulations to the “Palestinians”. A simple literal (i.e. enclosed in quotation marks) search for the phrase will bring you a host of web pages from anti-Zionist sites on that same theme: the Jews regard themselves as the light unto the nations, therefore they should act like it. It is brought as a reply to the charge of singling Israel out (“You call yourselves the chosen people, so you deserve to be singled out”). It goes as far back as Gandhi in 1938:

Let the Jews, who claim to be the chosen race, prove their title by choosing the way of non-violence for vindicating their position on earth.

Note that the good Hindu teacher is telling us how to be the chosen people. But considering that he said, “Hitler killed five million [sic] Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher's knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs. It would have aroused the world and the people of Germany. As it is they succumbed anyway in their millions”, and further led the Hindus themselves to disaster, to having their lands stolen by the Muslims (now called Pakistan and Bangladesh) after a bloodbath, because of his delusion that the Muslims could be approached with the same non-violent tactics as worked with the British, Gandhi’s words are not worthy to be taken seriously. But the sentiment goes on today, and most recently I saw it in use on a Daily Kos comment (screenshot):

Sorry, sick and tired of both sides pointing fingers and saying "you first.

Somebody has to be the adult, and it may as well be the "light unto nations."

People, then, who do not believe in the words of the Torah and the Prophets—indeed many of them do not believe in G-d at all—are all too eager to enlist His scriptures against His people. We can now see that it was for this reason that G-d gave us at Sinai not only the Written Torah but also the Oral Torah; that G-d not only gave His prophecies to His prophets, but also the correct interpretation of them to the rabbis. Private interpretation of His scriptures can lead anywhere; Jewish orthodoxy consists in following the Oral Torah and the rabbinical commentaries, and all other interpretations are unorthodox and therefore can be considered a twisting of the scriptures.

With that view in mind, let us review the two places in Isaiah where the phrase comes from. G-d says, through His prophet Isaiah, in 42:6:

I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and have taken hold of thy hand, and kept thee, and set thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the nations;

And in 49:6:

Yea, He saith: ‘It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the offspring of Israel; I will also give thee for a light of the nations, that My salvation may be unto the end of the earth.’

The whole verses do not support what the anti-Zionists say; their context is even less supportive. The anti-Zionists’ argument, then, rests upon the yanking of the phrase, the mere phrase, that single phrase, out of all its surroundings—the textbook method of twisting anyone’s words, not just G-d’s. So the suspicion should begin even before reading the rabbinical commentaries. Now to the commentaries (which, remember, are the only interpretations of scripture acceptable to G-d), which prove to be absolutely devastating to the anti-Zionist’s case.

Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi) says of Isaiah 42:6:

And so you will be also a light unto the nations, as He said, “And nations shall go [according] to your light”; the light is the Torah, which will be unto them from Zion.

Zion is Jerusalem, of course, which the “international community” says should be an international city at best, the capital of “Palestine” at worst. Note how Radak’s interpretation goes against the moralistic twisting of the Marxists: they think “light unto the nations” means merely a good human example to follow, leading to social improvement in a natural way, but Radak says it means, “divine light”, it means that the existence and sovereignty of G-d will be proved to all the nations through His people.

Metzudat David says of Isaiah 42:6:

(On “a light of the nations”) To illuminate the eyes of all the nations to know HaShem is G-d.

Not a word about Jews needing to be the first to make concessions to their enemies. Not a word about how the nation of Israel behaves toward other nations. Not one tiny admonishment against “stealing the lands of others” (perhaps because the same G-d says the lands are ours). It is all about giving the non-Jews irrefutable proof that the G-d of Israel is the only true deity and that He, not the pagan deities or the Marxist “materialistic dialectic”, as described in the Torah, not as in the Koran or in any New Age feel-good tract channeled in a spiritualist séance, is the true Lord of All Creation. That’s what the Jews’ being a light unto the nations is all about.

Radak says of Isaiah 49:6:

(On “I will also give thee for a light of the nations”) Its interpretation is that your [Isaiah’s] prophecies will in future be a light unto nations, who, upon seeing them being fulfilled, will return to the way of good and will spread light through you to be My salvation to the end of the earth, for in the oath of Israel the nations too will be saved after the wars of Gog and Magog.

Amazing: this is not only a slap at the detractors of Zionism, this gives a whipping to the antiwar crowd as well. “The nations too will be saved after the wars of Gog and Magog”—in other words, all those EU-UN-uchs’ efforts at bringing peace through diplomatic solutions will come to naught, and true peace will come only after G-d, by means of Mashiach Ben David, rids the world of the wicked (speedily in our days, amen).

Metzudat David says of Isaiah 49:6:

(On “I will also give thee”) But I will add to you [Isaiah] one more great gift, in that I will make you prophesy and send the message of the deliverance that will be in the future then, My salvation from one end of the earth to the other, for all will be saved in the salvation of HaShem.

Again the message of salvation to the world. Two things are of note here: first, contrary to the anti-Zionist view that “the Jews declared themselves the Chosen People in order to benefit from it and rule over all the other nations”, G-d says here that all the nations will be blessed in Israel’s blessing. Secondly, the light unto the nations is in this commentary the prophet Isaiah, who brings unto the nations the true formula for real, everlasting peace, to a world that looks toward the UN to bring “peace, peace”, but, of course, “there is no peace”, there are only pieces of paper being waved, not actual peace.

Conclusion: the light unto nations is the Jews or the prophet Isaiah, both because of the divine message they give to humanity, not because of their human social efforts. The Jews are the light unto nations in that, by observing the events concerning them, one cannot avoid the conclusion that HaShem is true. Prophet Isaiah, in contrast to the false prophets of peace, the Neville Chamberlains of our day, is the light unto the nations in that, by believing in his message and following his exhortations, one knows what the way to peace is and what only pretends to be such.

These are G-d’s word and His sanctioned interpretations. May the anti-Zionists repent, so that His judgment upon those who twist His words to evil ends may not be poured upon them. Shabbat Shalom.

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4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's interesting how the Jewish scriptures get twisted around and used against Jewish people. Christian scriptures (i.e., "The New Testament") get similar treatment. Even the laws of the Western countries get twisted around to justify a destruction of Western societies.

As a Christian, my take on this is that G-d is love, and that by showing G-d's love in our lives to others, we are that light to the world. This is too often easier said than done!

Advocating without exception a non-violent response to attackers is not wise; Christian scriptures are frequently misquoted in this context ("Turn the other cheek").

If I say something that offends you, you should turn the other cheek. But, if I constantly advocate your death and the destruction of your society, if I take actions to bring about those expressed desires, if I refuse to negotiate with you in good faith, and if in the face of this you fail to defend yourself and other innocent people, then that is dereliction of duty.

By the way -- I like how you did your sidebar ("Tomorrow Never Dies", etc.).

February 04, 2007 5:38 AM  
Blogger ziontruth said...

Hi Nevsky,

The laws of Western countries have been so much twisted that they cannot in any good conscience be considered laws--they're a codification of our age's lawlessness. There's been a worldwide rash of those incidents in which people using firearms against criminals for their self-defense or as part of their job have been prosecuted while their "victims" have been let free (at the very least) and even given compensation. G-d willing I'll have time today to do a post on this important issue.

It appears "Turn the other cheek" isn't what most people think it is. According to James Arlandson (whose pieces you can find at both Answering Islam and The American Thinker), it applies only to individuals, not to states. That vindicates your point that your scriptures have been twisted as well.

It's not that we Jews aren't commanded by G-d to set a good social model for humanity by our behavior; it's just that this Marxist interpretation given to it isn't what He meant. Even the Hindus have gotten impatient with those who use ahimsa (the Hindu doctrine of not hurting living things) to tell them to cave in to Muslim aggression; why, then, should we Jews be cowed (no pun intended) by similar sentiments? "Rise up early to kill him who rises up to kill you", say our sages, none of that "offer yourself to the butcher's knife" claptrap.

I'm glad you like the sidebar. Those titles have been here since the beginning of the blog. Humor, punning and ridicule are the best weapons against Islam, as proved by the fact that their most ferocious reaction is reserved not to guns, not to tanks, not to planes but to books, to cartoons and to medieval quotations. As snow is to the sun, so Islam is to the truth.

G-d bless.
ZY

February 04, 2007 10:32 AM  
Blogger ziontruth said...

Unexpectedly stalled for the last two days. With HaShem's help I'll be able to get back to posting tomorrow.

February 05, 2007 8:48 PM  
Blogger Yankee Doodle said...

"As snow is to the sun, so Islam is to the truth."

Excellent analogy. Please visit my blog when you have time -- I would love to hear your comments!

Stop Islamic Conquest

February 13, 2007 2:10 PM  

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