Philistines and Palestinians
Mordechai Perlman (aw004@freenet.toronto.on.ca)
Tue, 15 Oct 1996 20:41:00 -0400 (EDT)
There is a great book out on the market called "Philistines and
Palestinians". It's written by Rabbi Matisyahu Glazerson. Basically, his
thesis is that whether the Palestinians descend from the original
Philistines or not is irrelevant (although he does show that Palestine
means "land of the Philistines), one can assume the status of a nation of
the past by virtue of adopting the ideas and ideals of that nation. He
tries to show that such is the case with the Palestinians and goes on to
state that therefore, we cannot defeat the Palestinians through our natural
means. Rather, we must perfect within ourselves, within our nation, those
attributes which are the opposite of the attributes for which the
Philistines are infamous. And as long as we continue to ignore this plan
of action, we cannot succeed in the natural arena. And of course, he
shows, based on the works of the commentaries in conjunction with his skill
in the area of g'matria, to show what exactly are the spiritual areas on
which we should be focussed.
Mordechai Perlman