 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Okay, we're back. We're live. It's Tuesday. We're so happy to be with Rabbi Itchel Krasnijanski. Here on Community Matters, the title of our show is, My Heart is in Jerusalem. And indeed it is. Isn't it for all of us, somehow? Yes, indeed. Especially this time of the year when on the Jewish calendar we celebrate Chanukah. And Chanukah is the festival that commemorates an event that happened in Jerusalem. Yeah. How appropriate. Can you tell us the origins of Chanukah? Yeah. Yeah, Chanukah is the holiday that commemorates the victory of a small group, Jewish army. They were called the Maccabees and they stood up against the mighty Assyrian army in about 165 BC during the time of the Second Temple Period in Jerusalem when the Assyrians prohibited the Jews to practice Judaism freely, to express their beliefs freely and prohibited and forbade Jewish practice. And the small group of Jewish warriors led a battle against the Assyrians and they were victorious in the battle against all odds. Like we've seen in our lifetime in Israel, the Six-Day War. And when they chased the Assyrians out, they rededicated the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, which was defiled by the Greeks. And one of the services of the temple is to light the menorah. They had a candleabra that was lit every day. And it was an oil menorah. The lights burnt by oil and the Greeks defiled all the oil and they only had enough for it to burn for one night. And it would require eight days for them to replenish it with renewed oil, pure oil. And the miracle of Hanukkah is that the candle, the oil that was enough to last for one night miraculously burnt for eight nights until they were able to replenish it with oil. So this is what we celebrate in Hanukkah. It's a very joyous holiday. And so how appropriate it is that today we're talking about Jerusalem. Yes. Let's talk about Jerusalem, too, and the temple, where the Wailing Wall is located. There's a courtyard there right above the temple. What is it called? The Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock, I think. So can you tell us about the history of Jerusalem? I know we only have half an hour for this. Okay, so briefly, the first Jewish king from the Davidic line was King David. And King David chose his capital, Jerusalem, and planned to build a temple for God. But because, as the Prophet told him, that his hands were soiled from so many battles, it would be his son Solomon, King Solomon, who replaced King David, that he would build a temple. So King Solomon built what we know as the first temple. And that in Jerusalem, in the capital of Judea, of Israel, and that lasted for about 500 years until the Babylonians came and expelled, destroyed the temple and exiled the Jews to Babylon. And then 70 years later, the Jews came back. At that time, Persia was the power, and King Cyrus gave the Jews the green light to go back and to start rebuilding the temple. And this was the second temple that they built, which stood for another 500 years about until the Romans came and destroyed the temple and exiled the Jews from Israel. It's getting to be a habit. And all throughout the over 2,000 years since that happened, Jerusalem always remained as the center of prayers for Jewish people. As a matter of fact, the Jewish custom and tradition is that we always pray towards East, towards Jerusalem, wherever one may be, whether in Hawaii, actually in Hawaii, technically we should be praying West, because we're closer to Israel West. But everywhere in the world, Jews pray towards Jerusalem, and part of our prayers is expressing our yearning to come back to Jerusalem. So Jerusalem has always been the center of all our prayers. And more so even throughout the long exile, when the majority of Jews were living outside of Israel, there always was a presence of Jews in Israel, and there was always the majority in Israel throughout the 2,000 years. What does the word Jerusalem mean in Hebrew? I remember Yerushalayim, it's all through the prayer books forever and ever. What does it mean? Yerushalayim means in Hebrew Yira means fear, fear of God. Shalom means like shalom, peace. In Hebrew shalom also means perfect. So it's the most perfect place to feel the awe and the presence of God. That makes a spiritual center for sure. It's a spiritual center and also shalom is peace. It is the yearning for peace, which has always been the Jewish way, even though that somehow many people don't see it that way, or the narrative has been turned against the Jews. So now in Israel today, there are two major cities, Tel Aviv, I guess you could say three if you include Haifa. Tel Aviv and Haifa and then Jerusalem. What respective roles do they play? How does Jerusalem differ from say Tel Aviv? Well, firstly Tel Aviv is a very cosmopolitan place. Jerusalem is more ancient. Tel Aviv is the center for comrades and culture in Israel. But Jerusalem, besides for it being a holy place and a lot more the older religious, you know, the western wall, the wailing wall, etc. But also Jerusalem today is a very vibrant city ever since 1967 when the Israeli government recaptured Jerusalem from the Jordanians who waged an offensive war against Israel in 1967. And the Jews were victorious in that battle and we reunited Jerusalem because from 1948 when Israel was established the Jordanians fought the Israelis and they captured eastern Jerusalem. They destroyed all the Jewish, first of all they expelled all the Jews from east Jerusalem. They destroyed all the Jewish synagogues and temples as well as even Jewish cemeteries destroyed all of that and Jerusalem was a divided city. And in 1967 when Israel was victorious against its Arab foes it recaptured eastern Jerusalem, reunited the city, made it a city which is free, everyone is free to worship God in their way. Muslims are free to worship and the mosques and the Christians are free to worship in the churches and the Jews are free to worship in the synagogues. And besides for it being a religiously place of tolerance for all nations of the world, literally fulfilling the biblical prophecy of the prophets of old when they said that Jerusalem will be a home for all people. It is also a very, very business-wise, high-tech-wise it's becoming a major center in Israel in all fields of endeavor. On the main airport, a load airport, that's right between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem? It's actually closer to Tel Aviv, it's right pretty much Tel Aviv. It's probably about an hour and an hour and a half drive from there up to Jerusalem. So help me on this. I have understood that the U.S. has offices and the Israeli government for that matter has its offices and its basic governmental establishment in Jerusalem rather than Tel Aviv in my right. Correct, right. And this is how preposterous this whole phenomena is there is no country in the world that doesn't decide where its capital should be. And it's no one else's business, really. We don't say to Jordan, you cannot have a man as your capital. We don't say to France that Paris is not your capital, et cetera, et cetera. Each country decides where its capital is going to be. Fair. And Israel is no different than any other country, especially as we just mentioned before, the rich history of Jews dating back 3,000 years, a little over 3,000 years where it was the capital of Jerusalem. So Israel, when Israel was declared a state, it declared Jerusalem as its capital. But because the world couldn't swallow that, that was too much, it never acknowledged Israel as, I mean, Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. So by our president, President Trump, making the declaration and the announcement that which he promised early on in his presidency that he would recognize Jerusalem as a capital, that which all four or five presidents before him have always campaigned on, he was going to do. And that's what he did. And it was, I think, is very important because as he said, he's just acknowledging a reality. And it's also by right that Israel has the right to choose its capital. So it is the reality, as far as Israel is concerned, that Jerusalem is the capital of the country. And traditionally, you put embassies from foreign countries in the capital of the country, such as all the embassies in this country and Washington, because that's where it goes. And he made this promise early in his presidency. I believe in his campaign. Yeah. So he's following through on that. But why now? I mean, does somebody have his ear about this? Is somebody asking him, was there any particular event in the world that made him want to do this now in what December of 2017? I don't know, to be honest with you. I know it's something that Jewish people have been lobbying for a long, long time, as well as our friends on the Christian right have been lobbying for what is just and right. True. A lot of Christian people see Jerusalem as the center of Israel, and they visit all the time. And they do that for many reasons, but including religious reasons, as the place for the birth of Christ, no? Right. And I think Trump is just going down his list and doing what he said he would do. Now he's working on the tax bill. Tax bill, Jerusalem. We're going to take a short break. Rabbi Itchel Kresenjanski of Chabad of Hawaii. Today on Community Matters, we're talking about my heart. My heart is in Jerusalem. We'll be right back to talk about the effects of this announcement. I'm Ethan Allen, host of Likeable Science on Think Tech Hawaii. Every Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. I hope you'll join me for Likeable Science, where we'll dig into the science, dig into the meat of science, dig into the joy and delight of science. We'll discover why science is indeed fun, why science is interesting, why people should care about science, and care about the research that's being done out there. It's all great. It's all entertaining. It's all educational. So I hope to join me for Likeable Science. Hi, guys. It's RV Kelly. I'm your host of Out of the Comfort Zone, where I find cool people with cool solutions to problems that all of us face. Now, the thing is, we're really cool, and I only invite really cool people, but the thing is, I think you're kind of cool, too. So I think you should come and watch. That Thursdays at 11 a.m. here on OC-16 Television with Think Tech Hawaii. I'm RV Kelly, host of Out of the Comfort Zone, and I will see you next Thursday. Okay, today's Tuesday, the 19th of December. We're here on Community Matters. We're talking with Rabbi Itchel Krasunjansky, who is the Rabbi of Chabad of Hawaii. And we're talking about, my heart is in Jerusalem. We're talking about the recent announcement by President Trump, making at least recognizing from the United States the point of view that Jerusalem is, and the reality already is, the capital, and should be the place for the American Embassy in Israel. So, you know, this is a move that he made which has implications, even though it's recognizing, really recognizing a reality and maybe something that should have happened a long time ago, actually. But now there is this pushback. So I guess my question is, you know, what does it mean, you know, the diplomatic sense of it? What does it mean to put the embassy in Jerusalem? Well, you know, I'm a rabbi. I'm not a politician, so I don't know how well I can do diplomatically, explaining things diplomatically, but I believe the reason why it's very important and also the reason why we've seen such pushback, not only from the Arab world, but also from almost all countries except for a handful. That is because the larger question is, Israel's right to exist in the land of Israel. Not the capital. That's really what's driving this whole debate. It's the larger question, does Israel have a right to the land of Israel? The Arabs say no. They still today do not accept Israel's right, except for perhaps Egypt, but Israel's right to exist. And so therefore a lot of the western world, what I'm thinking is, let's not rock the boat. You know, if you demand too much and you claim too much and you walk with your head tall, then it's going to anger, you know, it's going to anger a lot of people. Meaning the Arab people. Meaning the Arab, right. But Israel and President Trump rightfully agrees that Israel has a right to exist. It has a right to exist because Israel is our biblical homeland. It's interesting, by the way, talking about Jerusalem. In the Koran, there's not one mention of the... One time is the city of Jerusalem mentioned in the Koran. Their holy place is Mecca and Medina. When they pray on the Temple Mount, they pray towards Mecca and Medina. They pray towards Jerusalem. They have never seen Jerusalem as their spiritual capital. In the Old Testament, in the Bible, Israel is mentioned close to 600... I'm sorry, Jerusalem is mentioned close to 600 times in the Bible. So, you know, Israel was promised to the Jewish people from the very first Jew, Abraham. God promised him in a covenant that this land will, you know, will be the inheritance for your children. And that's written in the Bible. That's written in the Bible. The Old Testament. Right. The Old Testament. And even if you don't... Even if you're not a believer, even though that millions and hundreds of millions of people believe in the Bible, as God's word, but even if you don't want to go to that, Israel, in 1948, they recognized and established, you know, modern-day Israel, the state, which was immediately... The reaction of the Arabs was to wage a war and to literally try to destroy this fledgling state, and they lost in 1948. And every country in the history of the world is established that the winner draws the borders. Sure. That's how you... That's the human condition everywhere. That's the human condition from the beginnings of time. Yeah. So, even if you don't, you know, even if you don't... If you're not convinced from just what the Bible says, so forget the Bible, this is just the reality of how nations are formed, that the victor is the one who establishes his presence. And Israel never initiated a war. That's very important to remember. Israel never initiated a war. It always, beginning from 1948 and 1967, before 1954, I think it was, in 1973, Israel was always attacked. Yeah. Well, you know, the pushback is really hard to understand, and my own view is that it reflects a kind of anti-Semitism. It's not limited to anti-Zionism. Anti-Zionism is, in many ways, a pure example of anti-Semitism. And so the Arabs are always going to oppose the existence of Israel in general, just as you say. But given all that, how will we see this pushback expressed? And I worry, you and I sat at this very table, I think it was like two years ago, and we talked about the violence that was happening on the very same streets of Jerusalem. People attacked at random for no reason at all. Ordinary citizens being attacked where they walk down the street. Really horrendous things were happening. We talked about that. Are we going to see that? What's going to happen with the people who are involved in the pushback, the anti-Zionism, the anti-Jerusalemism, the anti-Semitism? What's going to happen, do you think? Well, first of all, thank God Israel is a strong country today. And its military and its police are very, very, very strong. And they thwart many, many, many daily attempts of terrorist activities that they thwart. And as a matter of fact, Israel is a model for many nations in how to combat terrorism. They're very good at it, yes. They are. Because, you know, I forget who's the one that said that when they came for the Jews, I didn't care because I'm not Jewish. When they came for the homosexuals, I didn't care because I wasn't a homosexual. And then by the time, you know, the list goes on, by the time they came to me, I was the only one left to defend for myself. When Israel was the first country to be affected by the terrorism, 20 years now or more, and really many people in the world were almost unashamedly saying that Israel is at fault. Because if we just acknowledged and gave the Arabs more land, if we gave them Gaza, then it will all be good. That hasn't worked. Not only hasn't worked, it only intensified the problem because they turned Gaza into like a launching pad for terrorism. So when no one cared about what's happening to Israel, Israel is the only country that was being affected by terrorism. But today, it's not Israel. It's every other country, including our country here. You know, my beginning of 2011, surely Europe, surely the Middle East. But thank God Israel is able to do its best to restrain and to quash these terrorist efforts. And the reason why it's so important, President Trump's announcement, declaration, is because the truly can never, ever, ever be peace, unless both sides acknowledge the reality. As long as the Arabs deny the reality and refuse to acknowledge it, it will never be peace. Israel would never accept... Israel would not have a peace partner. So I think by gestures or declarations like that, recognizing the reality, I think that's the only hope for peace because peace will only come if both sides recognize the reality. Well, you may have to have a pay a price in terms of the violence that might break out here. It hasn't broken out in any significant way just yet, but that doesn't mean it won't break out later in some way. I wonder, I mean, Chabad, you're obviously going to be able to speak for Chabad. What is Chabad's position on Palestine, I'm sorry, Jerusalem in Israel, on the President's declaration and on the pushback? Well, you know, Chabad has a Rebbe. A Rebbe in Hebrew is for a grand leader. It was Rabbi Schneersen who was recognized as the world's greatest Jewish leader of our time. He passed away about over 20 years ago. Rebbe was a very fierce, fierce advocate for strong Israel. Rebbe argued that concessions, making concessions, giving into the demands of territorial concessions is wrong because not only does it not bring to peace but on the contrary, just the opposite because once Israel concedes here, the Arabs see this not as a gesture of wanting for peace but as weakness in the part of Israel. So, you know, if we kill another hundred Jews, then we can maybe get them to their knees and they'll give us more. And this has been ever since they had the peace accord and, what was the name of it? Not the Y Accords before the... No matter. Yeah, one of the big peace accords that everyone harkens back to as, you know, that glorious achievement, if you look, you'll see that the Intifada and all of the terrorist activities in Israel happened afterwards because the Arabs don't see it as what it was, Israel wanting peace so bad that it's ready to give up its territory. They saw that, okay, we can now, if we kill some more Jews and we put more pressure, world pressure, then we can bring Israel down altogether. Yeah, with the bottom line being, let's bring Israel down. That's the real purpose we don't care about peace. We just want to bring it down. And they say that clearly. It's not something that we have to figure out. They say it clearly. Ask Hamas to look into their charter. So if I want to help Israel at this point, American Jew, what do I do? How do I express myself, aside from having a show with you, Rabbi? Well, so first of all, because as a Rabbi, first of all, we Jews are spiritually a one people, organically one, spiritually. And when we are healthy spiritually on an individual level, that brings spiritual power to our brethren in Israel. So that's the most important way we can help. Every time you do a mitzvah, that means a good deed. A good deed is not only is good for your soul and for your life as an individual, it is good for the collective, for the Jewish people. And that's really why the Jewish people have survived all throughout this, these pogroms and holocausts, et cetera. It's a supernatural phenomenon. But also important is a lot of people are just fed misinformation about Israel being the occupier and Israel being apartheid and Israel being the aggressor. These are all plain, fragrant lies. These are just lies. And I think it's important to, you know, when talking to people who are open-minded and just want to know the truth, to be able to tell the truth as it is. Unapologizing. Really important. And we want to do that here at ThinkTech. But let me ask you one more thing. You know, so the president says that he wants to recognize, declare that he wants to recognize Israel, that he is recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Then the Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, says that he doesn't think this is going to happen right now. It's going to happen in three years. It's going to take him three years to actually move, you know, physically move the embassy of the United States from Tel Aviv, I guess, is where it is now, to Jerusalem where the president declared it would be. What challenges do we have? What do you expect is going to happen here? Is this going to be a smooth road, or are there going to be obstacles and, you know, things we have to do, that we have to overcome in order to achieve this move of the physical embassy to Jerusalem? Well, I'm sure there are going to be obstacles as I believe they just tried in the UN. They tried to force a vote to undeclare Jerusalem as the capital, and the United States vetoed it. I'm sure there will be many, many more things like that on the diplomatic front, as well as in many other ways. But I think that Israel has to stay the course, has to be strong as it is. And eventually people will come to realize that this is a reality that they have to embrace and live with, and hopefully even come to respect it and to see the righteousness of it. And then we can move on to the next stage, which hopefully is peace in that region. So this declaration takes on all kinds of secondary meaning, that it becomes iconic, it becomes central in the whole conversation, doesn't it? It does, it does. I just want to say one thing before we conclude that today is the last day of the Festival of Hanukkah. Eight days? Yeah, the eighth day of tonight brings in the eighth day of Hanukkah. We light eight candles tonight. The story of Hanukkah and the message of Hanukkah is really a universal message. And it is explained that the lighting of the menorah to bring light at night where it's dark in the larger sense is our task in this world to bring light into the dark places. And the nature of things is that light dispels darkness. So if we are lit and we shine, we dispel darkness. And darkness is many levels for everyone to be something else. But the whole Festival of Hanukkah, the whole story of Hanukkah is the triumph of light over darkness. And I'm sure one day it'll come to the Middle East as well. Thank you, Rabbi. Thank you, thank you for inviting me. It's been a pleasure. Rabbi Ichal Krasnjansky, the Rabbi of Chabad of Hawaii here on Community Matters, talking about Jerusalem. My heart is in Jerusalem. Aloha. Thank you.