June 5, 2020

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav, at the moment David said to Mefiboshes, “You and Tziva will split the field,” a voice from Heaven rang out and declared, “Rechovam and Yerovam will split the kingdom.” (Shabbos 56B)

One of King David's few mistakes was accepting lashon hara that Mefiboshes had been disloyal. On the basis of this, David cavalierly and wrongfully decreed that Mefiboshes would split his field with Tziva. At that moment it was decreed in heaven that his own kingdom would eventually be split.

Rav Yehuda further states that were it not for this, the Jews would not have descended into idol worship, and would not have been exiled from their land. This seemingly trivial injustice changed the entire course of Jewish history.

If the punishment for wrongfully dividing the estate of one Jew in Israel was so far-reaching and devastating, what is the punishment for decreeing that the entire land of Israel shall be split apart from its rightful owners?

We may be finding out in real time. No country has worked harder and more persistently to divide Israel's land than the United States.

(This is the time to insert the obligatory disclaimer that we are extremely grateful for the generally fair treatment we enjoyed in the United States, which, despite some dark moments, was virtually unparalleled during our two thousand years of exile. Thank you for not stealing our property and killing us.  The gratitude is sincere and so is the sarcasm.  That's the bar for the nations of the world.)

Friendly relations aside, pushing for Israel to surrender any part of its land, for any reason, is a red line that must not be crossed. This line has not only been crossed, it has been trampled beyond any recognition. And no one has trampled this line more, and pressured Israel's political caretakers to surrender its land or else, than the United States.

The United States is now being split apart before our very eyes. The states are splitting from the federal government, the states are splitting from each other, the people are all at each other's throats, and there are literally no principles left on which Americans can unite. They cannot even unite on whether the country should have borders, or requirements to enter the country and receive benefits, or whether the Constitution should be respected or shred, or literally any of the most basic issues that define a country and a people. The latest debate is whether America should even have police and law enforcement!  Americans share a common currency, and nothing else.

Am I suggesting that this is a punishment for obsessively trying to dictate Israel's borders? Yes I am.

The political caretakers of Israel do not have the right to give the land away, and foreign interlopers have no right to demand this of them. The division of the Prime Minister's office coincides with his endorsement of this plan, and the cataclysmic rifts in American society have burst precisely when the Americans are turning the screws for this plan to be implemented.

The so-called experts have been proclaiming that this is the last opportunity for a “two-state solution”. For once, they are actually right. Time's up. God is stepping in and setting things straight once and for all.

God has already drawn the map, and the only item for discussion is when the rest of our land will be restored to us. The nations of the world had best leave our borders alone and mind their own business.