Jews of all political persuasions joyously celebrate Tu b’Shvat with beautiful fruits grown on trees planted and nurtured by the residents/settlers of Eretz Yisrael.

As every schoolchild knows, if a tree or a nation is severed from its rootsit will inevitably wither and die. Nevertheless, Mr. Olmert and his cohorts have embraced policies that forcefully tear Jews from their historical, legal, and religious roots – roots planted firmly and incontrovertibly thousands of years ago by our forefathers throughout Judea and Samaria

We must demand that Israel’s caretaker government apply the lessons of Tu b’Shvat. Rather than dismantle miraculously resurrected Jewish communities, it must put a halt to the morally rootless disengagement/expulsionprocess.

Hamas’s landslide victory was not unexpected. Anyone who monitors the various opinion polls taken among Palestinians knows that the majority support suicide bombings and the murder of Jewish men, women and children.

While Fatah paid lip service to civilized behavior, its factions continued to routinely kill and maim, while stealing as much European and American aid as possible. Hamas has simply been honest about its agenda, and that agenda appeals to most Palestinians.

Hamas’s win was all the more a foregone conclusion thanks to Sharon’s retreat from Gaza. The more na?ve among us believed “disengagement” would bolster the institutions of government and order in the area (at the expense of 10,000 Jews and their established communities). The fact is, the Arabs saw the Israeli withdrawal as an abject surrender to violence. Arabs perceive concessions as a sign of weakness, which is why they do not reciprocate.

Mr. Fass really does seem to miss the point of his critics. He uses the word “science” and “scholarship” as if all sciences were the same and all scholarship was worthwhile. It is obvious that scholarship varies from the invaluable and essential to the useless, the pseudo-scholastic, and pure propaganda on behalf of various causes and ideologies. Not all sciences are equally as rigorous or advanced, and some fields called “science” and some scientific endeavors are an intellectual disgrace and hardly if at all scientific.

The basis of all science is the establishment through proof and disproof of fact, relationships, processes, etc. Theory, models, and explanations built on them are necessary and useful but are not the same as fact and cannot be treated as if they were. Many such theories pander to ideology, bias and cultural outlook.

A good deal of evolutionary theory is mere speculation and assertion that is impossible to prove or disprove and therefore is not scientific at all. A lot of it is intellectual nonsense and offensive to reason and real science. Evolution is culturally one of the main props to (and belief tenets of) modern secularism and secularist pseudo-religion and requires the thought police to defend it.

By firmly asserting that the laws of Mother Nature are “the will of God,” the Rambam, in his preface to the Guide to the Perplexed, made their study indispensable to the comprehension of Torah; a declaration that instantly gave legitimacy to other scholars, ranging from Rabbenu Bachya (“All the sciences are needed for Torah study”), Yaakov ben Dovid Proventcali (“The seven sciences are excellent in the eyes of our Sages);” the Maharalof Prague (“Sciences are a ladder to ascend to the wisdom of Torah”);

Monkey Business

Our Sages teach that Amalek has the same gematria (numerical value) as sofeik (doubt). The Satan is well aware that he would make no inroads in the Orthodox community by denying the existence of a Creator and, by extension, His blueprint the Torah. Instead our adversary employs those who claim fealty to the Torah while treating scientific doctrine as sacrosanct to create doubt about the veracity of the biblical narrative.

Certainly, they acknowledge, Hashem created man – but He did so through the process of evolution. Impressed by their erudition and expertise, the unsuspecting observant Jew is swayed and in many cases convinced that in fact the Torah’s account is allegorical. Admittedly it strains one’s credulity to fathom a single entity bringing this entire universe into being in the span of six days and then maintaining each and every aspect in complete synchronicity. Difficult, yes, but infinitely more logical than insisting that gazillions of accidents somehow produced an ordered system with all elements in perfect harmony and function.

Mr. Fass would like to portray this debate as religion versus science, but this is totally disingenuous. Interestingly, he chose to ignore Amnon Goldberg’s brilliant letter (Jan. 6) which made quite a convincing case for a 6,000-year-old universe. In fact, many outstanding scientists repudiate evolutionary theory, while ostensibly Orthodox Jews embrace the notion.

Mr. Fass, you disgrace the great name of the avos – that would be King Kong, Magilla Gorilla and, of course, Bonzo the Chimp.