By the time you receive this Bulletin, it will probably be around the middle of the Hebrew month of Shevat. It is at this time of the year, on Tu B’Shevat (the fifteenth day of Shevat), that we celebrate the New Year for Trees. It is
obviously a little cold in Chicago to contemplate this time as being the New
Year for Trees, but it is not so in Israel, where the winter and its heavy rains (It was a good year for rain) are ending and the harbingers of Spring appear. It is a reminder to us, living in the Golah, how important Israel is to us in all of its manifestations.

In a recent article in the Jerusalem Post, Professor Alan Dershowitz pointed out that part of the problem in presenting Israel's position to the world is that in our internal discussions we focus often times around only the 10% of the issues upon which we disagree (generally vociferously). Thus, when an Israeli who holds an academic position, or a former Knesset member, or even a current Knesset member speaks out on the need to do away with a Jewish state and replace it with a bi-national secular state or other such extreme suggestions, it receives an enormous amount of publicity. Our enemies present these remarks as indicative of the fact that even the Israelis recognize the “evil” of the Zionist enterprise. Professor Dershowitz suggested that it may be in our best interests to present the 90% of substantive agreement that the vast majority of Israelis and the Jews in the Diaspora hold in common.

Alas, this may seem to be just a dream. That Jews would be able to guard what
they say, less it be used by their antagonists is much too much to be expected. It seems it is much more important that we set up the principal of free speech as being more important than life itself. There is no community in the world that has or probably will exist that permits its citizens, who find themselves in a state of war, the freedom to say anything they want, any time they wish to say it, suggesting the muzzling of one's thoughts and remarks. I am only suggesting that perhaps those who speak out on behalf of our beloved people and its land, pass their thoughts through the self-censor called our brains, before they come out in speech. But then our egos and our five minutes in the sun get in the way. But in spite of ourselves, Hashem will keep His promise to give this land, the Land of Israel, to the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in perpetuity. So come Tu B'Shevat or thereabouts, remember Israel as we did on Saturday night, December 13th, 2003 in the marvelous Taste of Israel program that the shul sponsored.

To Beverly Alpern, Judi & Sam Block, Alan & Marcia Cahn, Bebe Drayer, Keith,
Sima & Rickey Esses, Henely Friedman, Howard & Rosalyn Gillman, Yael Groner,
Yael & Itzhak Hoffman, Helene Korrub, Jackie Labow, Myron Martin, Myrna
Rosenberg, Danielle Sandler, Arnie & Joyce Sklar, Jocelyn Verson, Jadwiga &
Riczard Bednarek, NCSY and my profound congratulations on reminding us that the Land of Israel, its people, its fruits and its accomplishments are forever in our hearts, minds and mouths.