Preparations For Rosh HaShannah

In Israel we are very busy getting ready to greet the New Year. There is a lot of shopping to do, a lot of cooking to do. Where will we daven this year? Which guests are coming to stay with us? Which Divrei Torah will be said? The coronation of the King is about to take place. May it be a good year for Israel and for all of the world.

In the meantime a lonely Jew sits isolated in a jail cell in the "land of the free and the home of the brave". As we eat apples with honey and all of the other delicacies, he will probably receive his regular prison rations. The man, a victim of a terrible injustice, has been languishing in prison for over twenty years. His name is Jonathan Pollard.

His Jewish brothers do not really care. He is an embarassment for them, a nightmare for law abiding American Jews afraid of being accused of dual loyalty. No!!! We are more German than the Germans American than the Americans! Stars and Stripes forever! Baseball, apple pie and Chevrolet! The Israeli politicians that used him are also embarassed by him and have done nothing to help him. He was thrown away by those corrupt "leaders" like one that throws a paper cup into the garbage. For them he is gone and forgotten.

Some of us have not forgotten you, O Yohanatan! Rabbi Aviner for instance:

Did you know that Jonathan Pollard is in an American prison because he spied for the benefit of Israel, and is slowly bleeding to death before our very eyes, and no one knows how much time remains; and that every single day that he is there, we are, every one of us, liable for the sin of "Al ta'amod al dam re'eycha" - "Do not stand idly by your brother's blood"?

Did you know that Jonathan Pollard did not do damage to the United States, but rather gave us information about Iranian, Iraqi, Libyan and Syrian nuclear, chemical and biological warfare capabilities - all being developed for use against Israel - and information on ballistic missile development by these countries; as well as information on up-coming terrorist attacks planned against Israeli civilian targets? This was information that should have been supplied to Israel according to official US policy at the time, but which was being illegally withheld. Because Pollard relayed the information to us, he saved thousands of lives. Did you know that every single day that he remains in prison, we are liable for the sin of: "If you refrain from rescuing those who are taken to death and those on the verge of being slain - and you will claim 'But, we did not know about this.'"? (Mishlei [Proverbs] 24:11)

May the upcoming year be the year that Jonathan Pollard is set free.