Many don’t realize that the learning all-night on Shavuot is called “TIKKUN Leil Shavu’ot” (literally: FIXING), because it annually corrects an embarrassing mistake, that our forefathers “overslept” and didn’t wake up for Matan Torah at Sinai (Shir HaShirim Rabba 1, 12, especially R. Yitzchak). How much more so, this week’s parsha of Cheit HaMeraglim, where the 10 spies convinced Bnei Yisrael not to make Aliya to the Land of Israel, demands a historical repair. For every single time (!) Am Yisrael was supposed to make Aliya, they repeated the same mistake: some say that Avraham Avinu left Israel after his first Aliya (Rosh, Y’vamot 64a); 80% of the Jews didn’t want to leave Egypt (Mechilta 18); even those who did, transgressed the same sin in Cheit HaMeraglim (Bamidbar 14); Yehoshua had to force even their children to enter (Sanhedrin 8a, cited in Rashi Dvarim 31, 7); most Jews stayed in Bavel and never made Aliya with Ezra to build the 2nd Beit HaMikdash (Yoma 9b); and as we see in our generation, Chazal even prepared us that even in the 3rd and final return to Israel, most Jews won’t want to make Aliya (Rashi Dvarim 30, 3). The Zohar, Shl”a (cited in Eim HaBanim Smeicha, p. 167) and Vilna Gaon (Kol HaTor, p. 534) stress that over history, even great rabbis and tzaddikim fell into the Cheit HaMeraglim against Eretz Yisrael, turning their backs and sometimes even speaking against the ideal of settling Eretz Yisrael. R. Zvi Yehuda Kook applies here the surprising phenomenon of “tzaddikim who lack Emuna (faith)” (Sotah 48b; LiNetivot Yisrael ii, p. 153).
The Torah explains that this recurring rebellion (Bamidbar 14, 9, “אל תמרודו”) stems from fear (“אל תיראום”, ibid) and the lack of belief (“לא יאמינו” ibid, 11) that Hashem will actually fulfill His promise to give us the Land, because of “unrealistic” odds. This lack of daring, where we see ourselves as “grasshoppers”, inevitably also causes our enemies to see us accordingly (13, 34). This lack of daring is almost “forgivable” that much more today, after 2,000 years of being kicked around from exile to exile, of course we “lack daring”.
Behold, who would have thought that Israel will dare take on Iran ALONE- where they are 75 times our size and about 10 times our population. Even our friend Donald Trump, as of now, did not actively participate. The current daring fight for Eretz Yisrael- is finally and definitely a Tikkun of the age-old Cheit HaMeraglim. True, we really had no choice, and obviously without Hashem’s help, we wouldn’t succeed, but He has been waiting a long time for us to rediscover our daring!
To first systematically neutralize Iran’s proxies in the Hamas tunnels of Gaza (including the Sinwars), then similarly eliminate the Hizballah leadership with the ingenious “pager attack” (and then Nasralla in Beirut), and then grab what we need in the collapsed former-Syria, takes guts. To systematically do away with the Hizballa and Syrian anti-aircraft missiles, and now do the same to Iran, while surprising and eliminating most of the Iranian leadership in their own home-court, certainly takes daring, as does opening a drone manufacturing plant inside Iran itself! After all those preparations, going after the big shark of Iran (again, 75 times our size, almost 10 times our population) is a lot easier but still takes chutzpah. Tosfot (Bava Metzia 106a) writes that having the courage to fight is also a G-d-sent miracle! (see R.Z.Y. Kook, Lintivot Yisrael I, p. 183 that this is one of the miracles of the declaring of Israel in 1948/תש”ח)
To lead the G7, USA, France, England etc. and dare where they did not, in taking on Iran’s nuclear program, must be considered daring by all means. Yes, somewhere along the line, most of the G7 will probably back out and as usual, start rebuking Israel for “over-reacting”, but as of now, they are still objective and even applaud our boldness.
As a group, as expected, the Tikkun Cheit HaMeraglim is being led by today’s Yehoshua’s and Kalev’s, the religious-Zionists of Eretz Yisrael, who are paying a heavy price for this Land which, like Torah and Olam HaBa, is acquired through difficulty (Brachot 5a). But just as historically the lack of daring to inherit the Land of Israel encompassed almost all of our people, similarly the TIKKUN must also be across the board. A national teshuva of daring where our forefathers didn’t. The call to Haredim in Israel and the religious abroad to participate in today’s Milchemet Mitzvah is not just a military necessity. It is a historic “righting” of a recurring “wronging” towards Eretz Yisrael. I wish we could include the assimilated, Reform and Conservative Jews as well in this national Tikkun, but at least those who “should know better”, and do have the guts to observe Shabbat, Kashrut, Taharat HaMishpacha etc. despite the hardships, and annually read Parshat Shlach and Cheit HeMeraglim, should also have the daring to participate in this significant “game-changing” of Jewish History.
We must surely thank Hashem, for He, as always, is the One bringing about Israel’s success, but let’s not forget to identify ISRAEL’S DARING initiative here, for that is precisely what the Tikkun is about! Also, if we don’t identify this and have the aforementioned “bystanders” actually join in, it will tragically minimize the essence of the national Tikkun of Cheit HaMeraglim. Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)