The Fast of Behab, Rachel Imeinu's Yahrtzeit and the vote on the "disengagement" aka, the expulsion of Jews from their homes in Eretz Yisrael have all converged in this week.

Yud (10) Marcheshvan, was the first of the three fast days of the Tzaddikim known as Behab; an ancient custom dating back to the Beit HaMikdash where Tzaddikim fasted on Monday, Thursday and the following Monday in the month of Marcheshvan to atone for the possibility that they may have acted frivolously and sinned during the Chaggim of eating and drinking.

At my Shul, Beis Tefillah in Ramat Beit Shemesh, we said Selichos before davening on the 1st Monday of Behab, as the day was seen as propitious for our tefillot of atonement to reach Shemayim, and in the hope of affecting a Divine end to the gezeirot rah against the Jews being contemplated by the current government of Israel.

Monday night, Yud Alef, marked Rachel Imeinu's Yarhtzeit and Rachel's Children Reclamation Foundation, headed by Evelyn Haies of New York, commemorated the date with a City-wide Remembrance ceremony at Israel Center on Keren HaYesod in Jerusalem.  Rabbis Meyer Fendel and Aba Wagensberg spoke about Rachel Imeinu as a role model for us all to learn from. 

The Foundation and it's complex located next to Kever Rachel itself in Beit Lechem evolved as a result of years of tug-of-war between activists who sought access to this holy place for prayers, and the government of Israel, through the military, who sought to restrict in various ways Jewish access to the Kever, ostensibly to "protect Jewish civilians."  The mission of Rachel's Children Reclamation Foundation is to maintain a steady stream of visiters to Kever Rachel, to maintain continuous learning at the Kever Complex as well as to develop and maintain an ongoing outreach program consisting of daily Shiurim and weekly Shabbatonim for young people to learn about Rachel Imeinu and her crucial role throughout Jewish history.

These two occassions have converged at a time when strong, impactful prayers needed to reach Shemayim on the eve of the crucial Knesset vote regarding Sharon's plans to abbrogate Jewish land to Arabs.  And we need Rachel Imeinu to again beseech HaKodosh Borchu on our behalf, that the Gezeirah Rah of expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif and the Shomron end and be permanently expunged for all time from our consciousness and that of the Government, that Hashem fight for us and that the current leaders be replaced with leaders whose hearts and minds are in the ways of Torah.

Torah relates that Yaakov explains to Yosef that "...I buried here [on the road] by Divine command.  In the future my children will go into exile.  When they pass Rachel's Tomb, they will embrace it.  She will stand and pray for mercy on their behalf, and the Holy One, Blessed is He, will accept her prayer."  (Encyclopedia of Biblical Personalities, page 485, Pesikta Rabbasi 3:69)

And it is related how, when the Jews were exiled, Rachel beseeched Hashem on behalf of B'nai Yisrael explaining that just as she was not jealous of Leah when she was given to Yaakov first after Yaakov had worked the first seven years expecting to be given Rachel, and that Rachel would not betray and embarrass her sister Leah.  Rachel "...performed an act of kindness for her, was not jealous of her, and did not expose her to shame.  I, who am flesh and blood, dust and ashes, was not jealous of my rival and did not expose her to shame.  You, O Eternal, merciful King -- why were you so jealous of idolatry, which has no substance?  [Why did] You exile my children and [let] the enemies slaughter them and do to them as they pleased?"  Rachel reached the compassion of Hashem and he was aroused and said, "For Rachel, I will return the people of Israel to their place."  (Encyclopedia of Biblical Personalities, page 485, Pesikta Eicha Rabbasi 24)

So what does commemorating Rachel Imeinu on her Yarhtzeit and Gush Katif have to do with the Boston Red Sox?

Alas, on Tuesday night, a majority of the Knesset voted on orders from strongman dictator Sharon in favor of "disengagement" aka expulsion of Jews from Jewish land in Gush Katif.  According to Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, the measure being voted upon said nothing about removing residents from Gush Katif or the Shomron.  Shalom said in his speech before the vote that the real vote takes place in March, 2005.  But the vote is a negative psychologically given the hard-hearted Sharon's adamant refusal to reconsider the move or to even consider permitting a national referendum on the issue.  Despite his adamant stubbornness, Sharon will,  fall politically in the end and will never reap the benefits of the planned Gaza Casino that he and Weisglass hope to make a mint on, which would dance on the blood, toil and pain of the Jews they plan to banish from the area.

And this is precisely where the Boston Red Sox enter the equation, needing one more win kick over forever the curse which came with their trade of Babe Ruth to the Yankees for an absurd $100,000 in 1919.*

For nearly 86 years from that date, every time the Yanks and BoSox went head-to-head with the championship on the line, some weird, freak thing would happen on the field -- a passed ball, a fielding miscue or a base-running error would give the Yanks a second opportunity, a second life to which the Yanks always answered with a decisive rally and victory over the hapless Sox.

Same thing too, in 2 or 3 seasons when Boston won and the Yanks finished lower in the standings where there was no pennant confrontation between them, the BoSox would likewise collapse in the crucial game against it's National League opponent on some weird, freak miscue which would open up the opponents floodgates, enabling the other team to emerge victorious.

This past season has been a different story.  The Yanks stood puffed-up, as Sharon is now, with 3 wins, 3 outs away from the World Series only to see Boston rally to win games 4 and 5 in extra innings, to win game six on a heroic, masterful pitching performance of Curt Schilling on a gimpy ankle and to win the seventh game decisively.  Following up on defeating the Yanks, Boston now stands, at this writing*, one winning game away from complete victory over the heretofore heavily favored St. Louis Cardinals.  The "curse of Ruth" stands at it's death knell.

The point is, as Rav Aba Wagenstein put it on Monday night at the Rachel Imeinu Yahrtzeit commemoration, that the Jews will receive "a second chance", just as what Yaakov explained to  Yosef about why his Ima was buried [on the road] and just as Hashem said with compassion when Rachel prayed for B'nai Yisrael upon their banishment from Eretz Yisrael, "For Rachel, I will return the people of Israel to their place."

So, just as Arik Sharon is feeling kind of smug and puffed-up, swell-headed by his current military battle victory in Knesset, he should know that in the end, IY'H the Jews, with Hashem doing battle alongside us, will ultimately triumph, against all apparent earthly, political odds.  As many people have said to me recently, "the Bigger they are, the harder they fall."  It's been proven time and again.  And so, saddle up the horses in the pasture of Sycamore Ranch, Sharon's farm.

May it be in this new year that our brethren in Gush Katif as well as our dear brother, Jonathan Pollard and our brethren currently subject to police harrassment, political interrogation and political persecution be central in our thoughts, prayers and actions.  May the Gezeirot Rah end, the Socialists evaporate and may we be zocha the moment when Jonathan Pollard is finally home among his brethren who care deeply about him.  May we be zocha in this coming year take giant steps toward fulfilling Hashem's blueprint of B'nai Yisrael as a Unique people -- an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with "the nations."

May we be zocha the Moshiach, the Ge'ula Shlaima, "Yom Hashem V'Kol HaGoyim", the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v'yameinu -- speedily, in our time", -- Immediately; Achshav, Chik Chuk, Meiyad, Etmol!!!

P.S.  *On Wednesday night, the Boston Red Sox became Baseball Champions, sweeping the World Series in four games from the St. Louis Cardinals