I Have Called Out But Nobody Answers
By Rabbi Shalom Dov Ber Volpe

Ten years ago, the Rebbe MH"M declared Eretz Yisroel to be the safest place: "G-d’s eyes are upon the land from the beginning of the year until the end of the year." By stating this, while at the same time proclaiming that peace talks endangered the lives of five million Jews, the Rebbe fought the wars of Hashem in a way that transcended the limitations of nature and transformed the danger into salvation – "A time of tribulation for Yaakov, and from it he will be saved."

The situation in Eretz Yisroel today is the most dangerous it has ever been. Then again, the miracles are greater than they ever were. We are witness to enormous wonders that are completely supernatural. In a sense, we are repeating the wonders of the Gulf War, but in greater measure. It’s a pity that habit becomes second nature and the "one experiencing the miracle doesn’t recognize his own miracle."

For weeks now, the terrorists have shot at Jewish homes in Chevron, Pisgot, Gilo, etc., thrown Molotov cocktails at military posts at junctions in Yesha and Aza, planted bombs on Israeli roads in Gush Katif and everywhere possible, and hurled rocks at Jewish-owned cars from Metulla to Eilat.

In the natural course of things, one would expect these hostilities to end in the deaths of hundreds of victims and the wounding of thousands, Heaven forbid. Though there were dead and wounded – and every single Jew is an entire world and may Hashem avenge their blood – one cannot deny the astonishing fact that the news of terrorist activities generally ends with the miraculous statement that "no one was injured."

Even the terrible explosion near the Machane Yehuda Shuk in Yerushalayim, in which two Jews were killed, could have ended with far more devastating results (as was the case in the past at the same location) if not for G-d’s endless kindness.

We see incredible miracles in that Hashem guards his people, despite the terrible shortsightedness of the politicians. May Hashem protect us and spread over us His sukka of peace, so that not a hair of a single Jew is harmed, and may the murderers be recompensed for their wickedness.

Yet another awesome miracle: just a short while ago, the government was about to sign the final stage of an agreement of national suicide with the terrorists. The agreement was going to include handing over the Temple Mount, an unprecedented chilul Hashem. It would also have established the "right to return" within Israel’s borders of hundreds of thousands of Hamas terrorists and people from refugee camps in Arab countries, as well as other humiliations contrived from the blighted secular fantasies of Ehud Barak, Shlomo Ben-Ami, and their advisors.

Then something happened for which there is no rational explanation. Just as the plan to abandon the Golan Heights was thwarted by the Syrian president’s refusal to accept the gift, the same thing happened with Arafat! A moment before signing the best agreement he could have ever dreamed of, he decided to wage war against Israel and to reveal his true intentions.

The policemen who were supposed to fight terror removed their masks and shot at our soldiers, with the rifles the Israeli government – both the Right and the Left – gave them. The enlightened "Palestinian nation," which yearns for peace, extended its claws and perpetrated acts reserved until now for the Nazi beast. Senior Palestinian officials who received VIP clearance from us are now preparing attacks against Israeli cities, together with the "engineers" of Hamas and jihad, who were freed from jail by those officials.

As a result of these actions, the treacherous process, beginning with Menachem Begin and concluding with Ehud Barak, was halted. All parties in Israel received an accelerated course in getting to know the enemy. What a demonstration of hundreds of thousands of people in Kikar Rabin did not accomplish, the terrorists themselves accomplished with their irrational actions. Hashem confused the terrorists and did not enable them to wait it out another month or two, at which point they would have received whatever they wanted.

Let us imagine what would have happened if those incidents had begun after a "successful" signing of the agreement, with the Temple Mount, many neighborhoods of the Old City, and at least 90% of the settlements, including the Jordan Valley, given to Arafat, and Syria the Kineret.

The only question is whether we Chabad Chassidim, soldiers of the House of Dovid, are taking advantage of these open miracles in order to join the Rebbe in the war of Hashem, to publicize his prophecies and warnings, and to completely abolish the ongoing suicidal political process in Eretz Yisroel.

Since the Six Day War, the Rebbe had been warning us, but nobody was listening. In one of his sichos, the Rebbe screamed, in the words of the Prophet, "Why have I come and there is no man, I have called out but nobody answers?" Indeed, dozens of letters and hundreds of hours of pain-filled sichos did not succeed in influencing the politicians in Eretz Yisroel to change their dangerous course.

Even now, after all those who were blind see "that their mouth speaks vanity and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood," they all continue in the same path that led to these misfortunes. And nobody cries out, "Hasn’t the time come to listen to the Rebbe MH"M?! How much longer will you continue to endanger the lives of millions of Jews?"

Four categories of our brethren are responsible for the terrible state of our security, and have still not learned a lesson from recent events.

The first category hold the reins of our government. Nearly all of the members of both the Labor and Likud governments are deserving of the title (the punishment for which is known in Israeli law) of "collaborators of the Nazis and their cohorts."

Members of the government, who are appointed over the security of the people living in Eretz Yisroel, give away our homeland, land that is part of our security, and water sources, to Neo-Nazi terrorists, admirers and followers of the Mufti, who make it quite clear that their goal is the liquidation of the Jewish nation.

The Prime Minister and his ministers destroy Jewish settlements in Eretz Yisroel and allow outlaw Palestinians to live there. They give these murderers their weapons. They help them raise hundreds of millions of dollars around the world. They look away from the stockpiling of weapons, the release of terrorists, and other violations of the agreement. At the same time, the Israeli government prevents Jews from protecting themselves from these terrorists by taking away weapons from the settlers and holding show trials for those who fulfill, "if someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him."

Menachem Begin signed the first agreement at Camp David, and Arik Sharon actually carried out the dismantling of settlements and the giving away of oil to the Egyptians. Both of them are responsible for the failure of the Peace in Galilee war, for which hundreds of soldiers gave their lives, due to the unwillingness of the government to destroy the terrorists.

All the problems we have today from Arafat and the Hizballah are only a consequence of the abysmal failure of the war in Lebanon. The Rebbe’s cries to finish off the terrorists all the way to Beirut and to get our soldiers back home (see the Kuntres at the end of the Seifer Hisvaaduyos 5742, Vol. 3) fell on deaf ears, until on 3 Tammuz 5742, the Rebbe said these people can represent only the Arabs and not the Jews!

Ezer Weizman, Yitzchok Rabin, and Shimon Peres were all loyal partners to Nazi Arabs. Although they repeatedly heard Arafat’s declarations of a holy war to liberate all of Palestine with blood and fire, although they saw the incitement in the Palestinian educational system, and although they saw that the terrorists were not fulfilling the treaty they signed, they continued to fool the Jewish people and kept on fulfilling the Oslo accords, giving Eretz Yisroel away to terrorists. They cold-bloodedly surrounded the tens of thousands of Jews in Yesha and Aza with millions of terrorists, while the Supreme Court, the legal advisor to the government, the Kol Yisroel official radio station, and Galei Tzahal, who all loyally serve Arafat and his henchmen, helped them carry out their plans.

The next steps were taken by Yitzchok Shamir and Bibi Netanyahu. At first Shamir was faithful to the Rebbe’s directives, but after 10 Shvat 5752, when he scorned the sharp message the Rebbe conveyed to him through Moshe Katzav, his government was destined to fall. Then his disciple Netanyahu followed his depraved path. He gave large sections of Yehuda-Shomron as part of the process of stages. He handed over Chevron to the terrorists, and surrounded Beis Hadassa, the Avrohom Avinu neighborhood, Tel Yishai and the Me’aras HaMachpeila with hundreds of thousands of bloodthirsty Arabs. He signed the horrendous Wye agreement and made life for those living in Yehuda, Shomron, and Gush Katif intolerable. He and his government hoped that the settlers would have no choice but to leave, which would enable them to conclude the "peace treaty" without any interference.

Last and worst is Ehud Barak. He implemented the agreements Netanyahu signed by giving away parts of Yehuda-Shomron. He brought the Hizballah to the edge of the settlements in the north, along with their katyusha rockets within striking distance of the entire Galil. He brought Israel’s deterrence capability down to zero, and degraded Israel to the extent that it was never degraded before.

If it had been up to Barak, he would have forcibly cleared out all of the Golan Heights. He would have brought the Syrians to Teveria and opened the entire northern part of the country to them. He would have given the Old City and the Temple Mount to Arafat and prevented Jews from praying at the Kosel. He would have filled all Israeli cities with an ingathering of Arab exiles and would have liquidated the Jewish presence in Eretz Yisroel. It’s only by G-d’s grace that he was prevented from doing so at the last moment.

Even now, after everybody sees who the terrorists are with whom we are making agreements, and even after Barak’s declaration that "we don’t have a peace partner," we continue to hear him banging on the table with false pathos and shouting, "Nu, really now, can we refuse Washington and not continue the political process?" He sees that there is no one to talk to and that you cannot rely on a single word or promise that these terrorists make, and yet he continues to make "peace."

Even an animal has a natural instinct to keep away from danger, but apparently this is a blind animal who lacks even animal sense. He is an expert at only one thing: giving worthless daily ultimatums. He doesn’t even have the sense to see that the world is laughing at him, including his close friends.

Barak outdid himself when he brought into his cabinet, as foreign minister and minister of police, the anomalous professor Shlomo Ben-Ami. Ben-Ami fired the policemen who beat those who lynched the two men in Ramalah in the course of their interrogation. He announced that any policeman who opens fire against Arab mobs will be pronounced guilty. He jailed Jews who protected themselves from terrorist attack. He announced at the height of the clashes in Wadi Arah that the Arabs were right, because they had been cheated for fifty years and, therefore, he is awarding them a prize of billions of shekel. He supports our enemies, who observe that the Israeli foreign minister and minister of police are in confusion. He represents the Arabs more than he represents the Jews!

Barak and Ben-Ami continue to stubbornly defend their harmful views. They are ever ready to continue talks with terrorists about giving away the Temple Mount and evacuating the settlements, as though nothing happened in the interim. The leftists members of Knesset help them. The Knesset chairman declared that the representatives elected by the people would stand for a moment of silence – in memory of the terrorists who live in Israel who died in the El Aksa Intifada. Could anything be more ludicrous?

Even Netanyahu declared on Chol HaMoed Sukkos, at the height of terror, that after things quieted down they had to continue talking with the Palestinians about the political process. He didn’t learn a lesson from the destruction he brought upon himself, and he wants to continue on the same path in the future.

Sharon, the one who destroyed the settlements in Sinai, has said a number of times lately that we have to continue the "peace talks," albeit in a different form: "Not as permanent agreements, but as transitional agreements." (Is there a significant difference between the two?) Sharon demands the abolishment of the Camp David agreement, but just the latest Camp David agreement, not the first and vital one, the source of all this trouble, which he himself carried out during the reign of Likud governments.

The President of Israel, Moshe Katzav, also let it be known how important the continuation of the political process is. The same Katzav who scorned the Rebbe’s warnings of 10 Shvat 5752, and was one of the main supporters of the terrible agreements that led to the present churban, is not satisfied with the terrible danger he inflicted on the Jewish people, and declared, as it were: I ate and I will eat again!

When a teacher announced that the Ministry of Education cannot force schoolteachers to teach children the "Legacy of Yitzchok Rabin," the President personally attacked him and degraded him before the media.

These prime ministers and politicians are the students of Ben-Gurion, Yitzchok Greenbaum, and the original Zionist leaders who established the state, whose political considerations were more precious to them than Jewish blood. They stood coldly aside when they could have rescued hundreds of thousands of Jews from the Nazi ovens. This information has been corroborated by authentic documents in a number of books that testify to this appalling chapter in our history, and has been hinted at by the Rebbe on a number of occasions.

They also continue in the footsteps of Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan, who proudly admitted that they had knowingly sacrificed thousands of soldiers in the Yom Kippur War (by deciding not to call up the reserves) on the altar of political considerations of "what will the nations say."

They perpetuate the unfortunate legacy of Yitzchok Rabin, who with his "song of peace" brought the Oslo debacle upon us and was personally responsible for hundreds of sacrifices for peace. (No words of flattery spoken in Rabin Square at the anniversary of his passing can atone for his audacious betrayal of the Jewish people, Eretz Yisroel, and Toras Yisroel.)

That takes care of the first category of "for three transgressions of Yisroel." The miracles Hashem is doing for us will foil their plans, bring down the Zionist government (an adjective used today to refer to whoever gives over Zion to our enemies), and will end in the return of the Kingdom of Dovid. However, due to our many sins, we still don’t see them facing up to reality. Not the government and its ministers, nor Knesset members, nor the media – no one has gotten up and announced, "We all made a mistake. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, the leader and Nasi HaDor, is the only truth and from now on we will act based on his directives."

The second category consists of religious Zionists who bear the banner of "the first flowering of our Redemption." Even when they saw the spiritual destruction of hundreds of thousands of Jewish children by the secular Israeli government; even when they saw the terrible danger the Zionist government (supported by religious, nationalist, and ultra-Orthodox ministers) put us in, they continue with their blind belief that the establishment of the medina was the ischalta d’Geula (the beginning of the Redemption).

Even those who fight against the peace agreements, those baalei mesirus nefesh who hang on to the country with their fingernails, see the Prime Minister, who uproots their settlements and abandons five millions Jews to the slaughter, r’l, as the embodiment of Moshiach ben Yosef. They refer to this period as HaGeula HaTivis (the Natural Redemption). It’s pitiable to associate the holy Yosef HaTzaddik with politics after the government abandons his grave in Sh’chem and prevents Jews from praying at his mother Rochel Imeinu’s gravesite.

This faith engendered a new theory – that Moshiach is not a person whose arrival we anticipate, but an era which began on 5 Iyar 5708 (1948). This era is merely experiencing ups and downs like the ayelet ha’shachar [the morning star]. They believe that the more religious representation in the Knesset, the brighter the morning star will shine, until we have the final Geula.

The Rebbe stressed quite a few times in his talks and letters that these beliefs delay the true and complete Redemption, and that they are responsible for korbonos. As the Rebbe wrote in a letter to Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin, z’l: "The shita which felled many bodies, and…continues to fell." And the Rebbe declared that "this is the only explanation (for now) that I have found for the korbonos and those slain in Eretz Yisroel."

Due to our sins, this second category of "for three transgressions of Yisroel," even when faced with the deeds of members of the government who represent "the flowering of our Redemption," still haven’t announced that there is no connection at all between the founding of the state and ischalta d’Geula. In fact, the only connection is a negative one, for the advent of the state postponed Moshiach’s coming for fifty years.

The third category is that of the ultra-Orthodox religious leaders. This leadership has continued vacillating from Camp David to this day. They helped the peace process through active support or by silent acquiescence, with every further destructive step taken accompanied by agreements made under the table with the religious leaders.

If you were to examine the agreements made with the Arabs in the last twenty years, you would see that they were greased with the non-kosher fat of benefits to various ultra-Orthodox religious groups. One benefit for evacuating Yamit and the residents of Sinai, another in exchange for Aza and Yericho, the third for giving weapons to the Arabs. Another benefit in exchange for Sh’chem (as the verse says, "for selling the tzaddik for money"), another for Chevron and Yerushalayim, and the final one for establishing a security zone.

The connection was not always overt, but just at the time that the government needed their votes, all sorts of "salvation" appeared: allocations for yeshiva students were increased, the covering of deficits for the Talmud Torahs, apartments for young couples, houses for rent, and other important and useful things. But these cannot stand up against pikuach nefesh. As the Rebbe put it, "Woe to chinuch that is stained with Jewish blood."

Due to our great sins, these people have even produced daas Torah saying: You must not start up with even an unimportant non-Jew; therefore, you should agree to the Arabs’ demands; the settlements are not important to our security in this age of missiles; pikuach nefesh defers lo sichanem. Give them the territories because they claim it’s theirs. In Galus we should lower our heads with each wave, and concede to them; we cannot be stubborn and cause trouble with America, etc. (All this is quoted from piskei dinnim, of gilui panim Torah shelo k’halacha.)

They really outdid themselves under Netanyahu’s government. The ultra-Orthodox quarter explained the silence of the Knesset members and/or their support of the agreements by saying that the main thing now is Jewish education, and that we’ll only have shleimus ha’Aretz when Moshiach comes. (All of a sudden they believe in Moshiach.)

The sorry facts are that most of the religious representatives, openly or quietly, supported or kept quiet or abstained when it came to giving back land to terrorists, when it came to abandoning areas pertaining to our security and surrounding settlements (even religious settlements) with bloodthirsty terrorists!

Those gedolei Yisroel who openly opposed the agreements have no political clout. Those who have Knesset representation who listen to them did nothing to save the Jewish people (and even got angry at the Rebbe for thwarting their plans, moments before a Peres government was established in 5750).

If Arabs shoot and throw stones today at Beitar Ilit, Neve Yaakov, Tel Tziyon, and Givat Zev, it’s due in no small part to the religious Knesset members’ position that either supported or compromised regarding concessions to the Arabs.

It’s hard to understand their approach to askanus. They sacrifice in order to build new religious neighborhoods, and to establish yeshivos, shuls, and mikvaos, and they really deserve credit for doing so. But what’s the point in building a yeshiva and shul in a religious yishuv if the residents are slowly evacuated because of the danger to life, which the self-same ultra-Orthodox representatives were responsible for bringing about?

There’s no question that if a government of the Right would come into power today, the ultra-Orthodox would continue to support and be an integral part of the political agreements, including leaving the Golan and giving up Yerushalayim. The chilul Hashem would be of tremendous proportions. Now only side issues prevent them (along with G-d’s kindness and salvation) from being actual partners with this wicked government, causing them to stand on the sidelines. Nothing restrains them from helping the government from the sidelines. No one protests against the government’s self-abasing actions and against Barak traveling to Washington to continue the process.

When the ultra-Orthodox Knesset members are asked in the media how they can help a government that wants to continue the political process, they answer that indeed, they have to wait for the uprising to subside and then the process should go on, "because we must have peace with our neighbors..." They are so blinded by money that, after seeing the consequences, they continue to support a spurious peace and a hand uplifted against Hashem and His Torah.

So much for the third category of "for three transgressions of Yisroel." Due to our great sins, even though everybody in the ultra-Orthodox street sees who’s right, we have not yet seen even one Jewish leader get up and proclaim, "Morai V’Rabosai, the verse "he turns the wise men back" refers to us, and there is only one true prophet of the generation, and that is the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Moshe is true and his Torah is true."

* * *

The prophet Amos says, "For three transgressions of Yisroel, but for four..." Unfortunately, due to our sins, there is a fourth category, which is actually responsible for the other three. The fourth category is us, Chabad Chassidim.

In 5751 (after the Gulf War) the Rebbe told us explicitly to inform the world that there is a prophet in Israel. What did we actually do after this clear directive? Why didn’t we take advantage of the Rebbe’s extraordinary prophecies about the Gulf War and about the doors of the Soviet Union opening, and go out in a massive campaign to the world and say that we must also listen to the Rebbe when it comes to shleimus ha’Aretz?

(By the way, recently in one of the religious newspapers there was a lengthy article which purported to show how far-reaching is the vision of the gedolei Yisroel. Among other points, the author gave the Gulf War as an example, saying that while everybody sat in sealed rooms, the gedolei Yisroel said there was nothing to fear and that Eretz Yisroel is the safest place. The author did not write who these gedolei Yisroel are... I am sure that young readers who don’t remember the events leading up to the Gulf War, have no idea who it was that promised salvation during that frightening time. Who is to blame if not us for not pointing a finger at the prophet and advisor and judge of our generation?)

Even when a few individuals got 150 rabbis to sign a psak din about the navi ha’dor (which included only what the Rebbe himself had said), and publicized this psak din, the official Chabad mosdos did not help publicize it. On the contrary, they supported the audacious ones who opposed it.

When the Likud government gave Chevron away and signed destructive agreements with Arafat, the representatives of our mosdos continued supporting the government and called the officials "our brothers." The prime minister at that time, the defense minister at that time, and the current president, all of whom stabbed the Chabad Chassidim in the back and thrust a knife in the Rebbe’s heart, r’l, continued to be our honored guests at every event, and their color pictures graced Chabad publications. This led the politicians to believe that their actions were acceptable, despite the weak voice of protest with which we fulfilled our obligation to voice our objections.

How great is our shame that we haven’t openly protested against this government, which is destroying the Jewish nation both physically and spiritually, endangering the lives of millions of Jews. The relationship between certain Lubavitchers and government ministers has continued all along. Demonstrations were suddenly forbidden for ideological reasons. But behind it lies fear lest Lubavitch neighborhoods and mosdos be affected.

Our lack of protesting caused a general weakening among all the organizations who work on behalf of shleimus ha’Aretz. If the cedars – the soldiers of the House of Dovid – have been burned, what should the moss in the wall say? Shame on us.

Just imagine the kiddush Hashem, the change in public opinion, and the halting of the government from continuing its suicidal mission we would have effected had we gone out ten years ago (since the sicha of Shoftim 5751) with continual explanations about the Rebbe’s prophecies and the Rebbe’s views of the current situation.

I blame my own flesh and blood, not others, for not one of us can say that he fulfilled the Rebbe’s directive to publicize "to all people of the generation, who the prophet of the generation is, who is appointed by Hashem, and what are his directives and counsel."

This is the fourth transgression, from which the other three are nourished.

* * *

But it’s not too late. "If not now, then when?" Our t’shuva and our changing our ways will lead to the complete t’shuva of the other three categories. We must establish a special committee to work on a constant basis to publicize what the Rebbe said via all methods of publicity, until every man and woman, boy and girl in Eretz Yisroel and around the world, know that we have a prophet and that he is the Rebbe MH"M whose every word is true and just.

We must show that the Rebbe spoke against giving away even an inch of Eretz Yisroel to the Arabs, and warned that concessions to Arabs will lead to danger to life not only on the borders but within Jewish cities, and in Jewish communities abroad.

We must publicize in the Rebbe’s name that the Geula is only as the Rambam codified it, that doubled and redoubled darkness replete with sacrifices should not be described as light, and that the phrase "the first flowering of our Redemption" should be erased from the siddur.

We must stay out of politics completely, and stay far away from supporting those who do not admit the errors of their ways and who do not guarantee to completely stop the political process and talks with the Arabs. We must make certain that no one dares to sign a Lubavitch agreement, official or otherwise, with candidates "good for the Jews," who have proven that they rebel against the Rebbe MH"M and open the entire country to the enemy. Any such unholy alliance will bind our hands and prevent us from fighting the government, and will make us partners to its deeds.

At the same time, we must raise the morale of the Jewish people, and proclaim that even now Eretz Yisroel is the safest place. There’s no question that seeing, back in 5752, that his prophecies about the danger to millions of Jews were not being heeded, the Rebbe took upon himself all the tribulations in order to save the Jewish people with kindness and mercy. As the prophet says about Moshiach, "and he is ravaged by our sins and crushed by our transgressions."

We are living through momentous times, for which the Jewish people waited thousands of years. The prophet, Nasi HaDor, Melech HaMoshiach wants to include us in the amazing privilege that we have to lend our little finger in bringing about his hisgalus, which will shake up the entire world. Will we simply stand by, betraying the mission Divine providence assigned us?

We must arouse the Jewish people and tell them that the Rebbe said, "Behold Moshiach comes – and has already come," and that recent events point to his imminent revelation. We have to explain how to become connected to the Rebbe, how to fulfill his directives, and accept his kingship willingly and lovingly with the proclamation of "Yechi HaMelech." We must include every Jew in giving life and strength to the King Moshiach, who will bring back the Kingdom of Dovid and bring the complete Redemption to the Jewish people.

Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu V’Rabbeinu Melech HaMoshiach L’olam Va’ed