Israel is faced today with the paradox of, on the one hand totally (!) rejoicing with the (bezH!) returning hostages and their families, while simultaneously cautiously preparing the offensive defense against the replenishing of our enemies with the most brutal and convicted leaders and terrorists of the last decades.
Am Yisrael is the complete nation (Chullin 56b; see Orot Yisrael 8, 6), and as such, must be accustomed to harmonizing the opposites. In fact, Rav Moshe Tzvi Neria summarizes Rav Kook’s philosophy in the term “Uniting the Opposites”. Children think that boys and girls are opposites, but when they mature, they realize that the difference between the two is part of the beautiful and G-d-sent attraction and completion. This is a matter of principle of monotheism, for there is One Creator who created everything, and all apparent opposites are simply an optical illusion, an immature and partial vision and understanding.
We read in Shabbat’s Haftara of Zecharia (ch. 14, as elaborated in Avoda Zara 3a) that G-d will test the gentile nations in the end of days, by seeing which of them can fulfill the mitzva of Sukkot? The obvious questions are: why this mitzva is the “litmus test”, the one “added” to their other 7 mitzvot? The gentiles were not in the desert, and did not benefit from the protective cloud, nor from the Sukkot there, so why should they celebrate and pretend to remember that which they can’t remember?! Also, it seems the mitzva of Sukka is so easy (just eat, sleep and breathe there), so why doesn’t Hashem test them with a difficult mitzva, like fasting on Yom Kippur or donating great amounts to charity? Thirdly, our sages tell us (ibid) that most of the gentiles will fail this easy test- why?
Rav Kook explains that if Hashem would have asked the nations to fulfill a “spiritual-like” mitzva, that wouldn’t be a challenge, for they are already accustomed to “chastity and poverty” (the Christian oaths taken by priests), as religious precepts forbidding physical pleasure. The challenge is whether they are ready/mature enough to unite the apparent-opposites monotheistically, by rejoicing physically in a totally spiritual atmosphere. Of celebrating “Zman Simchatenu”, the holiday of happiness, with wine and meat, wearing new dresses and earrings, etc. Of enjoying a Simchat Beit HaShoeva (basically, a circus, see Sukkah 53a and Rambam, Sukka 8 ), of all places, davka in the Beit HaMikdash, without feeling impious!
That is why Zecharia explains that the test will be who can EVEN “write on the horse bells and Temple pots: Kodesh to Hashem”.
We in Am Yisrael make a bracha on good news (“הטוב והמטיב”) and bad news (“דיין האמת”), and don’t see a contradiction between the two. May we merit to, as soon as possible, see that the continuous war against Hamas and all evil, will davka benefit from this cease-fire. Shabbat Shalom and Moadim l’Simcha! Rav Ari Shvat