Difficult times are upon us, and it seems that the greatest
hardship lies in the element of "the latter troubles erase
the memories of the first ones" (Brochos 13a). What is
particularly difficult here is the fact that one has no time
to ponder and contemplate what has already happened, since
before one turns around, another trouble is washing ashore,
and the worst of it is that one cannot take a breather to
stop and internalize the lessons of the first experience.
"And among those nations you shall find no ease"
(Devorim 28:65). This restlessness and uneasiness,
says Rashi, is a worse curse in and of itself. For when there
is respite, surcease, a person is able to take stock,
concentrate and think about the nature of the trouble, its
sources and causes, and especially, the consequences. But
this is not true when one has not had time to digest the
previous trouble and one is still gasping for breath before
being inundated by the next wave of trouble.
Nevertheless, Jews must exert themselves to examine the
entire chain of events, for one often sees that while every
difficulty and tribulation is terrible in itself, for every
tragedy and misfortune is difficult for the sufferer to
undergo, yet there often is some connecting thread between
them, something that unites the separate events into a
cohesive, comprehensive unit. It is our obligation to find
that unifying element that draws all the events together and
joins them into a composite whole.
*
If we study current events closely, we cannot help noticing a
unique phenomenon shared by all the difficult trials which we
are experiencing lately. These are troubles that visit Jews
by virtue of their Jewishness. And even those victims who
happen not to be Jewish, are still very much associated with
Jews.
Furthermore, a sign of our times is that the brunt of the
antisemitic persecution is concentrated in one spot,
precisely in Eretz Yisroel. For in these times, there is
hardly a place in the world where Jews are truly threatened
and persecuted. The C.I.S., which was until not too long ago
the best example of Jewish oppression and suffering, has
ceased to exist, and in the Islamic countries hardly any Jews
remain. The millions of Jews living mainly in America and
Europe live amidst leisure and plenty, enjoying civil rights,
unthreatened, and certainly in no apparent danger.
The only place where Jews live under constant danger is in
Eretz Yisroel, of all places; here Jews are sniped at as they
travel roads; the innocent are wounded and killed; here we
find Jewish settlements within gunshot range of their
enemies; here suicide bombers infiltrate with their murder
paraphernalia and spill Jewish blood like water. And this
whole explosive process began at the least expected time,
when the Palestinian enemy was under the rule of the most
benign and amenable government (from their point of view), a
government prepared to meet them on common ground and agree
to very generous terms. Who can explain what lay behind their
benighted leader who, moments before he could have received
so much more than he would have dreamed -- should turn to
war, as a result of which our life's routine has been wound
backwards to those days before Israeli statehood when we
proudly boasted, "The entire country -- a battlefront."
The verse in this week's parsha depicts such a
circumstance, where war is thrust upon us, inside our very
borders, internally rather than externally. Perhaps this
really hints at our situation today, which is non-existent
anywhere else in Jewish life: "And if you go to war in your
land against the enemy that oppresses you, and you shall blow
an alarm with the trumpets, and you shall be remembered
before Hashem your G-d, and you shall be saved from your
enemies" (Beha'alosecho 10:9).
The Kli Yokor comments: "It is written with a
beis, that is, in your land, relating to an
enemy who lives within the borders of your land." There were
periods in history when Jews were attacked in their dwelling
places in the Diaspora, and other times when we were attacked
in our homeland from enemies without, such as Arab neighbors
beyond our borders. But the war referred to here relates to
an enemy living within our borders, a fifth column within our
very land.
Such a situation would have been difficult to predict, for
many reasons. First of all, because up until recently, the
military power of the Palestinians was nil. Today the
situation is reversed, no matter how this came about and who
is to blame -- even if it was the Israelis themselves who
armed them, as the justifiable argument goes. The fact
remains that the Palestinian enemy is now a military factor
to be considered, a factor which we find it difficult to deal
with and for which we can provide a reasonable or possible
solution.
How pertinent are the words of the prayer which we recite
after the parshas ho'akeida each morning, "And with
Your great kindness, may You remove Your wrath from Your
nation, from Your city and from Your land and heritage." We
certainly do not cease proffering prayers that Hashem repeal
His wrath from His people. But why "from Your city and Your
land and Your heritage"? Precisely when millions of Jews are
scattered throughout dozens of lands all over the world?
Precisely when Jews possess an independent sovereign state,
with its own army and all the military hardware that a
modern, developed country requires? Precisely when we have a
"united Jerusalem", a "whole Jerusalem" which is "the capital
of Israel forevermore"? Precisely when "Har Habayis is in our
hands"?
But lo, we now have an answer to all of these disturbing
questions and we are now able to understand so well the depth
of the meaning of that prayer-plea that Hashem remove His
wrath not only from His nation, but also from His city, His
land and even His heritage. And all those who misguidedly
followed the vain, deceptive visions of those preemptors of
the Redemption or the various false visionaries of "the first
sprouting of the geula" -- are shocked to discover
that even after the state was established, and even after
reaping all those military victories, we are still left with
empty hands, save for all that we must pray for. Not one
prayer, one aspect, but all of them: respite for Hashem's
people, His city, His land and His heritage!
*
Let us examine the strange scenario that is unfolding before
our eyes. Over a century ago, there arose a rebellious
movement that denied the light of Hashem and His guidance,
that duped the masses with the false notion that the key to
our Redemption lies in our hands, in our own efforts. If they
were to remove the Jews from the lands of their exile and
concentrate them in their own sovereign land, so they
posited, then they would never be persecuted by the gentiles
again. Bring them to the land of Israel, create an
independent state with a strong army capable of defending
itself from the threat of neighboring enemy countries and
then, all we would be left to contend with would be the
Palestinian Arabs in our midst. A trifle. No problem.
But the reality in which we live now shows how utterly
mistaken they were. We still have a problem, a serious and
complex one, for we are now standing before the reality of
the situation of going "to war against the enemy in your
land."
The Divinely predicted process is far more difficult and
poignant than man could have imagined, especially when our
people are being manipulated by leaders who have their own
ideas on how things should be.
It developed that everything is completely opposite from what
they deceived themselves into thinking. Millions of Jews did
not follow their lead and continue to live dispersed
throughout the world, under no specific threat to their
existence, whereas we in Eretz Yisroel are, indeed,
endangered and to such a degree that it appears as if all the
hardship of Jewish exile is concentrated precisely here in
our homeland! All those `savants' who sought to learn from
the historic examples of other nations could not have
predicted such a weird turn of events which is so counter to
human logic and common sense.
But the Jewish People is not a logical one. It does not
operate under normal rules as do the other nations of the
world. The Jewish People is unique. It is a nation which
rallies to threats against it by sounding the trumpets. "It
is a positive commandment from the Torah to cry out and sound
the trumpets for every trouble that threatens the community,
as it is written ` . . . against the enemy threatening you,
and you shall sound the trumpets etc.' This is one of the
ways of repentance. That in times of danger, they shall cry
out over it and sound the [trumpets] so that all might know
that it was their [evil] deeds that brought this upon them,
as it is written, `Your sins caused . . . ' And it is this
which will cause that impending trouble to be removed from
over you" (Rambam, Taanis 1).
This is the only way in which we are obligated to act, and
there cannot be, now in or in the future, any advantage in
all of the other tactics, be they political or military, for
in effect, all of these `counsels' have already been tried
and implemented; none of them were effective and some were
even counterproductive and detrimental. It is our obligation
to be loyal messengers in rousing, to the best of our
ability, the hearts of our People towards teshuva and
improving our ways as the only means to remove Heavenly wrath
from "Your nation, Your land, Your city and Your
heritage."
"And if you go to war in your land against the enemy . . .
And you shall be succored from your enemies." "Tzar is
an actual, virulent threatening foe, whereas oyev is
an enemy who harbors hatred in his heart. It is unusual for
one to cry out to Hashem against a potential enemy, only
against a present, menacing one. Not against a future trouble
in the planning.
Hashem promised us that if we blow the trumpets when faced by
an enemy menacing us and return to Him with our whole heart,
then `You shall be saved from your enemies.' He will then
foil the enemies' schemes" (Oznoyaim laTorah).
*
The situation is a difficult one, even with an internal
enemy. He strikes hard, felling many victims. Many people are
perplexed by this saddening forecast. Even those who call for
power tactics are confused and don't know exactly what to
suggest, what logical solution can get us out of this mess.
Who can give a viable chance to occasional spells of quiet
after almost all the experts recognize the conditions in
practical terms and doubt any possibility of the enemy
eventually laying down their arms. All this intensifies the
confusion and even leads to depression.
But this is not news, either, for did the prophet not
predict, "This is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all
of them snared in holes and they are hid in prison houses;
they are for a prey and none delivers, for a spoil and none
says: restore. Who among you will give ear . . . Who gave
Yaakov for a spoil and Yisroel to the robbers? Did not
Hashem, against Whom we have sinned . . .? "
And the Malbim comments: "In the way that you presented the
question it appears as if the reason for Yisroel having been
spoiled and robbed is incidental, and you ask why Hashem did
not save? Why the hand of circumstance ruled to reduce Israel
to the opposite of Hashem's cherished select. But if you turn
back from the effect and search out the cause, you will admit
that nothing is happenstance. And if Israel has, indeed,
become spoils, it must be because Hashem so willed it! And
now we must ask why Hashem did this.
"And now that we ask why this came about, it cannot be that
Hashem desired to destroy His people for we know that He made
the Torah great and demanding for the sake of His
righteousness, because He purposely desired to make His
children worthy and meritorious. The reason, then, must be
that they sinned against Him, they abused the very thing by
which He sought to provide them with merit. He endowed the
Torah with many obligations and commandments, but they
refused to keep them. They shunned His ways; their hearts
turned away, as they did in body. They violated the Torah
with equanimity."
In total contrast to all the foolish, imbecilic notions
touted by various causes, including those who boast the
descriptive title of "religious orthodox" and who blame this
state of affairs on our "not giving Zahal a free hand to
win," is the warning of the novi who sets this
misconception in proper perspective, "Who gave Yaakov for a
spoil? Is it not Hashem, against Whom we sinned and Whose
ways they refused to pursue, and Whose Torah they did not
heed?"
This message is repeated in our parsha, "If you go to
war in your land against the enemy that oppresses you, you
shall blow upon the trumpets and you shall be remembered
before Hashem, and you will be saved from your enemies." We
must turn to Hashem with all our hearts to be saved, and not
to repeat the stupidity bordering on heresy of turning to the
false idols of might and military power.
*
Since there is no evil that does not have some good (Tzror
Hamor 24,2), it seems that in a certain sense, some
benefit is sprouting from this present military approach
which has been taken since the beginning of 5761, and perhaps
we can couple to it what we once heard from Maran R' Yaakov
Kamenetsky zt'l upon the occasion of a visit to his
home in Monsey, two years after the Yom Kippur War.
His words related to that difficult war, to the thousands of
war victims it claimed and the messages to be gleaned
therefrom. Surprisingly, he said, "People are accustomed to
thinking that the Six Day War was a so-called `good war,'
whereas the Yom Kippur War was a devastating one. From a
Torah perspective, it is quite the opposite. One must always
examine the spiritual outcome and we thus see that after the
Six Day War, there prevailed a euphoric atmosphere of
cochi ve'otzem yodi, `the might of my arm' gained this
victory, as a result of which there was a heightened
accusation against Torah scholars and their military
deferment.
On the other hand, the Yom Kippur War was characterized by a
low military profile. Israeli pride took a beating; the halo
of courage and heroism was tarnished, which created the first
buds of the blessed Israeli tshuva movement.
This, said HaGaon R' Yaakov, is how we must look at events:
do they cause a spiritual weakening or a strengthening? As
tragic and harsh as the Yom Kippur War was, it still resulted
in Jews taking stock, stopping to measure events on a world
scale of spiritual values; they began to draw near to their
roots and sources.
This present war also contains beneficial seeds, for our very
eyes see and our ears hear how Israeli pride has suffered a
severe blow. No longer is the Israeli an invincible know-it-
all or do-it-all. Many are those who are beginning to admit
that they are far from omnipotent. Our powers are limited,
and even the prime minister admits that military might is not
the answer. Sometimes one must restrain oneself and not
strike, contain oneself and not retaliate. The view from the
Prime Minister's position, he admits without hesitation, is
very different than from that of the Opposition.
