A Soulful Journey

Prime Minister Menachem Begin, on a visit to Washington, at an impressive dinner tendered to him and his wife at the National Portrait Gallery. In a sentimental mood, he indicated that he would reach the pinnacle, and we called the obstacles he had faced. Lifting a glass to toast to his wife, with whom he shared his flight and dinner, he cited the words of Jeremiah: “I remember your love for me in our youth, when we were first married, when you followed along with me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.”  Compare that view of marriage with the story told by Ilka Chase about her divorce from her first husband.  It was his second divorce.  When they parted ways she placed into his suitcase personal mementos with a message next to his wife: “I hope this reaches you in time.” – Rabbi Gerald Zelizer Live life and make it full of love.

I will never forget the moment. It was years ago. I have been invited to a banquet at which the guest of honor was Menachem Begin. It was a very special moment because it was Begin's first visit to Washington as Prime Minister of Israel. Mr. Begin was in a mellow, nostalgic mood. He began to reminisce on how far he had come in life to being prime minister of the Jewish state, how we had witnessed the death of his father and brother at the hand of the Nazis, how he had been imprisoned by the Soviet authorities, how he have been hunted by the British in Palestine, how Ben-Gurion have rejected him as a partner in Israel’s government, how election after election he and his party had lost. And now he was in the prologue. And with tears in his eyes, he turned to his wife, Aliza, and quoted the Prophet Jeremiah in saying Zacharti Lach Chesed Nu’urayich - “I remember the kindness of your youth.”   He was a big man now, but not too big to remember all that his wife had been throu...

At the time of the Camp David accords, there was a joke making the rounds that then President Carter divulged to his partners at Camp David that he had had a special phone line installed, long distance, directly to God. They consulted with God throughout the deliberations, running up quite a bill. Despite the expense, President Sadat of Egypt immediately installed such a phone at his office in Cairo, and he, too, regularly used the connection. On one occasion, complaining to Israeli Prime Minister about the high cost of the service, Begin responded: "Oh, I just use my desk phone, and it doesnít cost me anything."  "How is that possible?," fumed Sadat. Said Begin, "From here it is a local call."  - Rabbi Avram Reisner

Shimon Peres had a reputation for being a consummate politician.  A story is told of him traveling down  road and coming to a fork.  At the crossroads, Peres asked which route Ben Gurion would have taken.  The driver responded, "He would have left his options open." Peres then asks what Menachem Begin would have done.  The driver answered, "Begin would have chosen a route and then obtained a legal document attesting to the fact that there were no other options available." Peres thought and then said to the driver, "Signal left, and then turn right."

“We will never give up Yamit.   I swear to you.   When you hear people say that we are going to give up Yamit, forget it.   Tell them they don’t know what are talking about.   Yamit is Israel.   There is no difference between Yamit and Tel Aviv…When I retire from office, my wife Aliza and I are going to buy a plot of land in Yamit.   This is where I am going to retire and write my memoirs.   So when you hear people say that we’re going to give up Yamit, don’t pay attention to them.”   -Menachem Begin in 1977 when he become Prime Minister and before he gave up Yamit. Life constantly shifts.   Everything change.   So, should we.   We should never been so immovable as to deny the possibility that we were wrong and can change.