Cheshvan 12
Struggle I have been in a year-long legal battle with someone who is trying to literally destroy my life. This has been the biggest challenge I have faced in 25 years (when I lost $5 million in a business deal gone sour). I just can't figure out what God wants from me on this. Any ideas? The Aish Rabbi Replies: It is very difficult for us to "judge" God because we are stuck in time and space. And because our view is so limited, we are therefore limited in terms of knowing which ground rules God is employing. When "bad" things happen, there are so many possibilities of why it's happening. "Is this a challenge in life that was given to me so I could become an example to inspire others? Or is this to get me to fix a wrong I've done? Or is this due to historical/national forces that are affecting me as an individual? Or is what's happening to me now through a choice that I've made? Or that I'm on my own because I've distanced myself?" Sometimes what we perceive as punishment is really an opportunity for growth. In the story of the "Binding of Isaac," the Torah says that "God tested Abraham." Of course God already knew what Abraham was capable of. So who was the test for? It wasn't for God; it was for Abraham. I want to share a story that I heard from a friend who experienced the following incident. If you've ever ridden a bus in Israel, you know how people enter the bus from the front door and pay the driver, and people exiting the bus do so from the back door. Sometimes the bus is so crowded that people will also enter from the back door, and then pass their money up front to pay the driver. Well, this one time the driver decided he wasn't going to allow that. He announced that whoever had entered from the back door, must now get off the bus and walk around to the front. Everybody complied grumpily, except for one very old man who could barely walk in the first place. Yet the driver stuck to his guns and announced that the bus would not move until this old man came on through the front door. So slowly, slowly, one small step at a time, the old man got off the bus and walked around. And all the while, the people on the bus were shouting at the driver for not only his insensitivity to the old man, but for wasting everyone's time! Finally, the old man managed to make it up through the front door and pay the driver. And then he turned toward the bus full of angry people and told them: "Please, don't be upset. We should be grateful that my legs still work, and I have the strength to walk. Thank God!!" The Almighty only provides a challenge that you can pass. Apparently this is the challenge that the Almighty gave for you to grow. I know you can rise to it and take pleasure in your success. And it will make you stronger and better. I want to conclude with the following poem I once read: I asked for strength and God gave me difficulties to make me strong. I asked for wisdom and God gave me problems to solve. I asked for prosperity and God gave me brawn and brain to work. I asked for courage and God gave me dangers to overcome. I asked for love and God gave me troubled people to help... My prayers were answered. | 
In 1975, the United Nations passed a resolution declaring that "Zionism is racism." Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Chaim Herzog, noted the irony of the vote coming (on the English calendar) exactly 37 years after Kristallnacht. The UN Secretary General at the time was Kurt Waldheim, later accused of war crimes while serving as a Nazi officer. The "Zionism is racism" canard is easily refuted by Israel's open and democratic character -- with Arabs serving in parliament, as well as Israelis of all skin colors. Upon the airlift of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, William Safire noted: "For the first time in history, thousands of black people are being brought to a country -- not in chains but in dignity, not as slaves but as citizens." The UN General Assembly voted to repeal the resolution in 1991.
Cheshvan 12 is also the yahrtzeit of Yitzhak Rabin, prime minister of Israel, who was assassinated in 1995 after attending a rally promoting the Oslo peace process. Rabin served as Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, and under his command the IDF achieved an overwhelming victory in the Six Day War. As prime minister, he played a leading role in the signing of the Oslo Accords, which created the Palestinian Authority. Rabin was awarded the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Shimon Peres and Yassir Arafat.
In 1938, Hank Greenberg of the Detroit Tigers narrowly missed breaking Babe Ruth's single-season home-run record of 60 home runs. Greenberg hit his 58th homer with two weeks remaining in the season, but several pitchers then intentionally walked him rather than give a Jewish man a chance to break Babe Ruth's record. (He led the league that year with 119 walks.) Though Greenberg disputes this motive, he did acknowledge being subject to the most vicious ethnic taunting seen in the sport since the days of Jackie Robinson in 1947. Greenberg testified: "During my first year in the big leagues, the remarks from the stands and the opposing bench about my Jewish faith made life for me a living hell." Greenberg grew up in an observant Jewish household, and did not play on Yom Kippur. In 1954, he became the first Jewish player to be elected to baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
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