Toras HaSafari: The Man Eating Lions of Tsavo and the Founding of the State of Israel

okay we're here live at the leopard Sands Hotel in cougar National Park the Novi always tells us in peric gimmel AR who fears not the Roar of the lion when the lion Roes who is Not Afraid when you were walking down the trail and you saw the lion and you weren't on the Jeep that's pretty frightening who fears not the Roar of the lon and of course the the M bring AR is rash Rashana yipper Raba but what I would like to share with you tonight is to get a real feel of what it means to be stirred by the Roar of a lion and I want to tell you the amazing account of Colonel John Patterson do you know about Colonel John Patterson Colonel John Patterson was an Irish Soldier an engineer born in 1867 to a Protestant father and a Roman Catholic mother he was personally a Christian Zionist and he joined the British army at the age of 17 and he attained the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1898 Colonel Patterson was commissioned by the Uganda Railway Committee in London to oversee the construction of a railroad bridge over the savoo river in present day Kenya my parents wanted to go to Kenya but I was able to convince them to uh to steer away away and he arrives in Kenya at the Tavo River to build this bridge in 1898 immediately upon the arrival of Colonel John Patterson lion attacks began to take place every night two lions would drag men out of their tents at night and fed on these victims the man eating lion Behavior was considered very unusual usually Lions do not eat human beings for dinner it's not a typical thing for a lion to chew on a human chop or uh you know a human steak Lions don't really have not developed a taste for human beings these Lions cultivated a taste and an appetite to eat human beings and different theories were Advanced how did these two lions develop such an appetite to eat human beings some say it was the poor burial practices in Kenya some say not enough animals to eat because of disease in East Africa some say there was a slave route and all the slaves would die on that route and the Animals the Lions had easy access to these uh dead slaves in any event these two lions who became known as the manting Lions of Sao in the course of a short amount of time consumed 140 human beings two lions ate people and despite building Thorn walls around the camps and bonfires and electrical wire nothing stopped these two lions from nightly dragging people out of their tents and eating them whole and actually these two lions caused the building of the bridge to stop because Colonel John Patterson cannot find any workers who are willing to work in this area so he was a an exceptionally Brave man he was an experienced tiger hunter from his days work working in India and by the way Colonel Patterson writes as follows in my whole life I've never experienced anything more nerve shaking than to hear the Deep Roars of these Dreadful monsters growing gradually closer and closer and to know that in a few moments one or two or a few of us were doomed to be their victim before the the morning dawned now the way the Lions worked was they would Roar they would Roar they would Roar until they got half close to the camp and then they would fall silent which we knew they were St they were stalking their prey and shouts would break out and I'm going to tell you what they would shout out in African and I'll translate they would shout out which was what they were singing last night by the way that was part of the nigun beware Brothers the devil is coming now these workers were very uh superstitious yeah the workers were very superstitious that this was actually the work of the devil and the warning cries proved to be no avail sooner or later agonizing shrieks were heard and they knew that the uh Lions had broken through the camp they would drag out a few people and that would be their dinner now so if you want to get a little picture we're not talking about you know little ly Lions we're talking about lions these man eating lions measured 9 ft long from the tip of their nose to the edge of their tail but now that I told you the first part of the story you probably wanted to know whatever happened with those man eating lions well Patterson was in a bind besides the financial considerations that he was gr given a grand to finish this bridge and the work completely stopped basically his personal safety was in Jeopardy the workers were becoming hostile to Patterson they didn't want to work anymore and they blamed him for all of these accidents so his reputation was on the line his livelihood was on the line his safety was on the line and Patterson was an experienced tiger Hunter so at night after night he would climb up to a tree with his rifle hoping to get a glimpse of The Lion and the Lions demonstrated supernatural abilities because a few occasions Patterson confronted the lion face to face he shot the lion multiple times whereupon the lion almost killed him a few times so many bullets had been pierced through these Lions many many times didn't stop them didn't have any effect on them he shot them numerous times point blank and each time they almost killed him finally after months and months the bullet killed the lion they needed eight guys to drag the dead lion back to the camp this lion had already killed by itself about one lion eating 70 people you thought this was a big meal these Lions would eat one or two people Daily Now Patterson published a book entitled I have the book at home the man eating lions of Tavo which became a bestseller and which you a little a trivia question which US president became best friends with John Patterson Teddy Teddy Teddy Roosevelt okay now now that was an important Alliance that John Patterson had the story doesn't end here the lion part does sort of but the story continues and this is really out of this world Patterson goes back to England he's hailed a hero because he overcame the man-eating Lions of Sao World War I breaks out Patterson traveled to Europe excuse me to Egypt and he took on a very unusual task because he felt a close connection to the Bible and he was a a Christian Zionist he formed the unusual task of leading a unit of Jewish soldiers comprised of Jews who had been exiled by the Turks from Palestine so you had yid many were who fored in World War I and their Brigade was led by John Patterson Patterson called the unit do you know the name of the unit there's a famous unit the Zion mule corpse the job was to and his job was to provide supplies to soldiers in the trenches in galipo now the British government was the most anti-Semitic government maybe in history the Brits during uh World War I and Patterson convinced the British government to provide his Jewish and religious uh Soldiers with matah for pesak and Patterson learned to speak in and Ines to be able to communicate with his Jewish soldiers 1916 Patterson formed an alliance with Vladimir jabotinski in order to create a Jewish uh Legion in the British army to fight to liberate Palestine from the Ottoman Empire and Patterson believed that it is his mission in this world to create a Jewish homeland and he was met with a lot of anti- zionis uh forces both among the Jews and among the non-jews it's very interesting the war minister Lord Derby succumbed to pressure and he attempted to prevent the Jewish uh Legion from serving in Palestine Patterson said he will resign if Derby puts an end to the Jewish Legion Derby backed down in fact one time somebody in the British army called a Jew dirty Jew Patterson commanded his religious officers to surround him with their guns and to threat in his life until this person publicly asked fora for calling this person a dirty Jew Patterson commissioned to come down to the camp and to inspire his Jewish troops to give AO now he would Clash repeatedly with anti-semitic British officers and the Jewish Legion fought very well Palestine was liberated from the Turks Patterson was the only British officer in World War I not to be promoted uh for his work because of the anti-semitic attitude of the British government after World War I pison dedicated himself to try to build up the Jewish State and there were many Jews who wanted to set up a alternative to palestin in Africa in Uganda so Patterson made sure to give them a copy of his best bestselling book the man eating lions of Tavo the reason why Uganda was not ultimately selected as a Jewish homeland was because they were afraid to be eaten by the man-eating Lions of savvo so actually this story is responsible for the establishment of the state of Israel but we're just starting okay World War II breaks out Patterson's an old man he again tries to create the Jewish Legion he approves the Jewish infantry Brigade and after fighting the uh Germans they smuggled many Holocaust Survivors into Palestine now Patterson wants to entreat Harry Truman to agree to establish a Jewish homeland he has no connection to Truman but he used to be best friends with Roosevelt through his friendship with Roosevelt he was able to make an AAL and become connected to Truman and ultimately he was able to compel Truman to accept the Jewish H man tragically John Patterson passed away 1 month before the state of Israel was created in 1948 without him the war of independence cannot have been won because many of the soldiers in 1948 were trained by Veterans of his Jewish Brigade whether in World War I or in World War II so he is credited with a very large uh portion of helping establish the state of Israel now most people have never heard of Colonel John Patterson the lion the man-eating Lions of Tavo you could go to Chicago today and at the Field museum they are still they're mounted there and they're on display in the field M museum in Chicago but his legacy lived on in a way that's really unbelievable John Patterson's biggest admirer was a professor at Cornell University the author of the official biography of the abarbanel professor of History benion Netanyahu oh my goodness was his biggest admirer Netanyahu loved Patterson so much the father of course of bib that he named his son Yoni Netanyahu is named after Colonel John Patterson so this is the uh account of John Patterson so when we say and you hear the sound of the lion who's not afraid these are the type of lions you need to be thinking about so the question is are you afraid of el like they would be man-eating lions are you afraid of Rashana because those those men when they would hear the Roar of the lion they couldn't sleep at night are you able to sleep in L do you fall asleep at night maybe you don't sleep any nights but a Rashana could you fall asleep on a yum Kipper could you fall asleep on aab what do you mean it's a rhetorical question but may we dare say we're not afraid who's not afraid of the lion We're Not Afraid did you ever go to a zoo and you see a lion behind the bars if the lion roars are you afraid you're not afraid why not if the man-eating Lions of SEO had scaled this wall would you be afraid I wouldn't cuz some of you look a little bit more tasty than I do but most of you may be very afraid what's the difference between a lion in the zoo and a lion in the wild see the difference is a lion in the zoo is behind bars there's a havdala between you and the lion and when there's a havdalah there could be something awesome there but you're not afraid of it but when you see a lion in the wild there's nothing stopping it there's nothing blocking it it instills fear the answer why we're not afraid of an of a rash of Yumer of what we callid is because we have successfully erected AEL between us and what's the the is even one misdeed is the bar of iron and it separates between our heart and recognizing so when we go out into the wild and we see the animals in their raw habitat we have to think you know why doesn't things in the spiritual World affect us in the same way and it requires introspection we have to think about perhaps there are that we've erected even one word even one thought even one deed it has an effect on a person but of course when a person does chuva he removes saw the and then he sees the and you realize all of these Concepts then we revert back to where we're able to perceive the mil so remember the lion the man eating lions of Sao remember Colin John Patterson if not for him we probably wouldn't be getting on open jeeps in Krueger National Park and uh luckily when you were walking today and there was a lion next to you it wasn't one of those manaing Lions but for now hasem should watch over us and protect us from and we should all be thank you very much [Applause]