start of the war but I haven’t really wanted to say it out loud /write it out but I just needed to ask. Ever since the war there’s been a lot of discussion especially in the dati leumi (religious-Zionist) community about how this war is one of the signs that we are in ימות המשיח and how these are part of the “growing pains” before geulah . But we also know there’s a concept of the land “throwing us up” when we’re not doing what we’re supposed to as a nation. So I guess that’s the pessimistic way of seeing it, but how do we know we’re interpreting the message Hashem was trying to send us through this war the right way? Is there a possibility we should be focusing on doing more introspection as a people instead of being excited that this is all part of the geulah process when it could possibly be the opposite?
Sorry to hit you with such a heavy question on a Friday morning but I’ve just been thinking about it a lot and it’s been bothering me. I was just reflecting on how long this thing has been /will be going on and I was really just struggling a lot with this question.
A. Great question! The fact that we are in the ge’ula process (Google my article: “Could Zionism Be Just Another False Messiah?”) doesn’t at all mean that everything is fine, and that we don’t have to solve problems. To the contrary: for 2,000 years we ran away (!) from our problems by fleeing from one galut to the next. Now that we’re home to stay, we must rediscover how a normal nation must often fight together (!) to deter our enemies.
Accordingly, the fact that Chazal (!) tell us that this third return is the final one (Tanchuma Shoftim 9; Yalkut Shimoni Zecharya 581), teaches us that the land isn’t “throwing us out”, and rather than “fighting with our passports” by running to another exile, we have no choice but to break out of that “galut mentality”, dig in and stand up together to fight those who wish to annihilate us, as did King David, Gidon, Shimshon and the Maccabees.
That doesn’t at all contradict your correct point that davka because we are in the historic process of our national renaissance, we should be doing a lot “more introspection” and self-improvement religiously and especially as a society. Recall that literally overnight, this war against Hamas stopped the potential “civil war” between religious and anti-religious Israelis (who even remembers the fighter-pilots who threatened they will ‘dis-obey Bibi’s orders’?!), and reminded us that we are really one nation, and must unite shoulder-to-shoulder against our sadistic enemies. When a significant historical “shake-up” inevitably (!) causes us to reunite, rethink and resolve our differences, that’s clearly what Hashem wants us to do- that’s how we know the “message He’s trying to send us” (His eternal and inevitable Torah teaching that achdut/unity is the only solution). In short, reuniting Israel (not only geographically but also nationally, religiously and emotionally) is the exact opposite of that exile which you mentioned- where we were a “dispersed and separated nation spread among the other nations” (Esther 3, 8): that division which is the last thing Hashem wants now and the source (!) of our problem, and surely not the solution!
Accordingly, if you ask “how long will this be going on?” The answer is: until our reunited nation (see all the volunteering and unity among soldiers from opposing backgrounds) revamps our divisive politicians and replaces the “defeatist” generals (who hoped for quiet, knowing full well about the 100’s of kilometers of Gazan tunnels prepared for the next war against us), with IDF officers who will fight together (not against each other!) until Israel’s decisive long-term victory. Until we elect true Zionist visionaries (to replace the self-centered galuti leaders), who think beyond “our 4 year term”, and immaturely “buy” quiet, by pushing off problems until the next prime-minister’s term. Being “here to stay” is a totally different mindset which Ben-Gurion had, but Rabin’s Oslo government (“this nation is too tired to fight any more”) lost. The Arabs have forced us to rediscover who we really are and clarify what we really want.
How long this war is going to take, really depends on the aforementioned introspection. When we stop looking for quiet, and start solving our problems rather than running away from them, the problems will inevitably begin to solve themselves. When the Arabs understand that rather than running away from Sinai, Lebanon, Gush Katif and Judea and Samaria, we are here to stay, they will relate to us totally differently. When it registers in our popular conscience that we have national pride, as G-d’s eternal Chosen People, returning to His Chosen Land which He promised us in order to be that “Or LaGoyim”, Light for the Nations, then also our neighbors and the U.N. will relate to us with respect. We can’t live like Switzerland even if we’d like to, for are destined for a much bigger and greater role, as the Nation of Prophets, revealing the fulfillment of the prophecies, to advance monotheism and morality in the modern world, as well.
Just as we already demonstrate to the world how a moral army fights even against an immoral enemy who use their own children and hospitals as human-shields, and teach Europe for example, that being moral doesn’t mean one gives in to Islamic terror, but rather defending our civilians and fighting evil. This delicate balance of gevurah (which Islam takes to an absurd extreme) and chessed (which European and American Christianity take to a naïve extreme), is one of the central challenges of mankind, and as the world is maturing, the time has come for Am Yisrael to show the ideal balance. Like David HaMelech, the sweet, moral and spiritual poet of Tehilim, who demonstrated his morality davka by slaying the threatening and barbaric Goliath. Ironically, the anti-Semites absurdly accuse us (!) of genocide (!) and losing our balance on this very issue, as the Moslems and many liberal Christians form a coalition with Hamas terror against democracy and the victims. But we’re not worried, for b’ezrat Hashem, eventually the truth always wins out, especially in the Ge’ula process (which reminds us not to lose hope). Davka their accusations and Biden’s criticism sharpen the necessity to demonstrate how to run a moral state and even army, and that true morality isn’t decided by feeling sorry for the one who started. Eventually the world will understand that in dealing with the Jihad philosophy, the victim isn’t decided by “who suffers more casualties”, but rather by clarifying who is right and the innocent victim, as opposed to the ideologically motivated aggressors who try stealing our land, who eventually will get walloped. In the end, the truly innocent Arabs will also benefit from this clarification and rid themselves of their barbaric leadership.
With Love of Israel, Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)