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27 Tammuz 5761 - July 18, 2001 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Shema Yisrael Torah Network

Opinion & Comment
We Must Use our Spiritual Weapons

The actions of the Palestinians are predictable; what Israel will do is not.

It is pretty obvious that the Palestinians will continue with their efforts for murder and mayhem. The fact that they have no other way to express their feelings does not justify this mode of expression but rather indicates -- if they truly cannot control themselves -- that they are not able to accept the basic principles of civilization such as those of the United Nations.

What Israel will do in the next few months is not clear. The incessant, inhuman attacks put pressure on the government to "do something," but what this should be is also far from obvious. Foreign Minister Peres and some die-hard Leftists insist that the thing to do is to resume talking with Arafat. The Right, which is bearing the brunt of the attacks, would like to see the end to the declared policy of restraint. They call for the government to take some forceful, violent, powerful steps to hit back at the subhuman terrorists.

The Torah community never shared the combative spirit that was once so strong in the Israeli community and it certainly has no enthusiasm for fighting today. Most of the Israeli public, it seems, believes that a show of force will not solve the problems, since Prime Minister Sharon seems to enjoy broad support in the opinion polls. As even Menachem Begin once said, "A bad peace is better than a good war."

Even thirty years ago when the country was drunk with the heady feeling of "kochi ve'otzem yodi," our gedolim warned against this approach. In the middle of the Yom Kippur war, Maran HaRav Shach, shlita, said in a shmuess: "What are our bad deeds? Certainly we are not free of bad deeds, but the worst of all of them is the idolatrous faith in "kochi ve'otzem yodi." They have gotten people used to trusting in Zahal, in the aid of the United States, in the power of weaponry. As if the Arabs have no power, no weapons and no might. . . . We must know that only our prayers helped us and only Hakodosh Boruch Hu saved us. If there were evident miracles on Yom Kippur and in the days following, it was in the zechus of the entreaties and the prayers. . . . War is not random. It comes to show us that we are, every day, dependent on His will and His mercy.

"I would like to add a further explanation by way of an analogy. We see a train going, and we do not know who or what is powering it. We must know that the force that powers Am Yisroel and gives it the right to exist, is hidden in the learning of Torah and keeping mitzvos."

Saber rattling and war cries are not heard from those who are the shluchim derabonon. If there are weapons to be dusted off, they are the ones in the spiritual arsenal of Klal Yisroel.

Especially in our days, when the army is so far from what a real Jewish army should be, and the decision makers are so alienated from all Jewish tradition, and certainly from Torah, it is all the more important to stay on the sidelines. To be sure there are situations in which it is important to have an army, but who determines this today?

When Klal Yisroel fought Midian in the desert, Moshe Rabbenu sent a thousand to fight and a thousand to learn Torah and to pray. That is the Torah approach to war. There is no doubt that no one else will step in to strengthen the Torah and tefilloh of Klal Yisroel, so we had better do it ourselves.


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