Do we Jews need a war in order to be united? Are we only friendly with each other in times of a crisis? Are we inviting trouble to bring us back together?

אך טוב לישראל (Akh tob leIsrael)
TEHILIM 73

THE POSITIVE SIDE OF A CRISIS
Rabbi Moshe Azancot, z”l (the grandfather of my colleague and friend, Rabbi Ari Azancot of Beth Torah, NY) taught me a very original meaning (a derasha?) of these three words from Tehillim: “Akh” the first word of this pasuq, should be understood as an onomatopoeia, that is, a word whose meaning is in its sound. In Hebrew –like in Spanish (Aj!), or in English (“argh”)– the onomatopoeia “akh” has a negative connotation. It expresses suffering, frustration and anguish. Having this in mind, these three words are saying something a bit ironic and sad. “Akh”, that is, suffering: a crisis that sometimes happens to us Jews, is “tob leIsrael”, might be the one thing that brings a positive outcome for us collectively. When we are well and in peace, it is difficult for us to agree: we fight with each other, each one pulls to his or her side. Sadly, as these three words indicate, the only thing that will surely unite us is an “Akh” situation: the enemy attacking us or waging war.

WHO NEEDS A WAR?
Israel already had four parliamentary elections in recent times. Israeli society is very divided, so no party reaches an automatic majority of 61 votes needed to form a government. The only way to have a government is through alliances between the different political parties. There are basically two major groups in the Keneset: the right and the left, with many variables in between. The Israeli right, among other things, believes that we need to have a heavy hand on terror, and in negotiations with our unfriendly neighbors would make the minimum possible concessions. This conservative position is more pragmatic than ideological: there is no one to talk on the Palestinian side. No Palestinian leader who openly declares (in Arabic!) that Palestinians want “to live in peace alongside a neighboring Jewish State, which they would recognize.” Israeli conservative parties could have more than 70 votes, which represents the will of the majority of Israel,  if they were together! But, particularly in the last election, there was another factor that prevented this natural coalition: these parties were divided because of “personal resentments” (שנאת חינם) among political leaders, rather than ideological differences. And literally, “a few hours” before the bombings from Gaza began, three of these conservative parties were negotiating a coalition with political parties that are explicitly opposed to national Jewish observance or that do not recognize the right of the Jewish people to their land! Then the bombings of Gaza began, the riots, and the Arab “progroms” in Lod, Aco, Haifa, etc. And only then, a representative of the conservative parties decided to put aside his personal resentments (or aspirations) and avoid an artificial coalition that, in my opinion, would have been tragic for Israel.
Now, today,  at this moment, Israel’s political leaders from the right and the center finally came together. And a natural conservative coalition is within reach again.  As those three words of Tehillim suggest, “Akh,” the crisis that we are suffering  ended up bringing some “positive” opportunities for unity. But it is very sad to realize that: rockets, extensive material damage and the irreparable loss of precious human lives is what can bring us together. Are we involuntarily inviting wars and crisis to befall upon us, in order to assure our “unity” ?

THE LESSON FROM MATAN TORA
Shabuot celebrates the giving of the Tora. And our Sages explain that there was a prerequisite that needed to be fulfilled before we would be worthy of a Pact with Bore Olam.  VAYICHAN SHAM ISRAEL NEGED HAHAR “the people of Israel camped [united as one] in front of Mount [Sinai].” The rabbis mentioned that the Jewish people were organically together as “one individual, with one single heart.” At that moment WITHOUT CONFRONTING AN ENEMY we put aside our differences, and we felt part of the same nation. We stood together not because we were facing a common enemy, but because we were pursuing a common purpose: receiving the Tora and becoming the People of God.

This is the way to go!

I have no doubt that B”H Israel will be victorious in this war “in every front”. And I have no doubt that we will emerge from this crisis stronger than we were before this conflict.

But I pray to HaShem, and I beg to each of us, that we should “be and to remain united” not because of the deadly missiles of the enemy, but because of the life-giving words of our Tora.

YOU SHALL NOT BE RESENTFUL

When we left Egypt God did NOT allow us to become a bitter, violent and resentful people. We had every reason to hold grudges: we were enslaved by the Egyptians for over a century, but HaShem had a different plan for us. He included among His commandments an absolutely FORMATIVE Mitzva in terms of our relationships with other peoples, which became part of our DNA. Debarim 23: 8 says: “לא תתעב מצרי כי גר היית בארצו” , ” You shall not abhor [hate] the Egyptians, for they received you as foreigners in their land. “ This revolutionary verse says that holding resentment, even when justified, would destroy a person –or a people– inside.  When what defines you as a society is “grievances” your identity will be founded not on positives qualities but on hatred for a common enemy: today the Egyptians and tomorrow the next foe. A culture of grievance would have transformed us into a people with an insatiable resentment that would not let us enjoy peace and prosperity, but would drive us to seek violence and destroy whoever does better than us.   This amazing verse also teaches us to practice an  extreme gratitude towards anyone who once did something for us: we should never forget that the Egyptians opened their doors for us and welcomed into their land in Yosef’s time. This and other similar commandments have forged very special qualities in our Jewish DNA: A “positive” selective memory. We should not live with resentment –which destroys mainly the person who lives with it– and never stop appreciating and being grateful to anyone that ever did anything good to you.  But not all the peoples of the earth hold these same values ​​… not even those civilizations that supposedly have the Bible as a reference for their religion.

SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY

Israel is facing a new conflict with the Palestinians. I am not referring now to the terrible confrontation with Gaza (see the article below) . This new crisis is a little different from the previous ones. And it can become more serious. It has new protagonists: the Arab citizens of Israel. They are not “refugees” but Muslim legal Israeli citizens living in Yafo, Ramla, Acco, etc. Tens of thousands of these citizens have carried out violent demonstrations and attacked the Israeli civilian population, and there have been already several casualties. What happened in Lod, a city that should be the perfect model of Arab and Israeli coexistence, is inconceivable. Three synagogues (so far) have been burned down in the city by the Islamist Arab mob. THREE SYNAGOGUES! This is not happening in anti-Semitic Europe but in the ONLY JEWISH STATE of the world.  The “Times of Israel” described what happened as “The Kristallnacht of Lod.” And Lod was not an exception: similar things have happened in many other cities with Arab and Jewish population. This is how an Israeli journalist from Makor Rishon newspaper explains: “… the surprise of the surprises [in this war] has been that tens of thousands of terrorists have emerged overnight among the Israeli Arab population, ordinary citizens crying out for the destruction of the state and they are carrying out hundreds of pogroms throughout the country every day, terrorists-civilians who are going out every night looking for prey: Jewish blood … »

THE CULTURE OF RESENTMENT

These Israeli Arab citizens vote in Israeli elections, hold Israeli passports and are represented in the Keneset, the Israeli parliament. The irony is that in Israel they LIVE MUCH BETTER than they would live in any Arab Middle Eastern country like Syria, Lebanon, Egypt or Jordan AND THEY KNOW THIS VERY WELL. They enjoy a very high quality of life, have absolute religious freedom, access to the best universities in Israel and they benefit from Israel’s booming economy and its modern medical system. Why then this violence? Why do Arab extremists shout: “Death to Israel”, “Death to the Jews”? I believe with Guy Bechor, that the culture of resentment, the fact that it is the Jews and not the Arabs who have created one of the best countries on the planet, does not allow them mentally to enjoy the privilege of living there and being grateful for it. It is as if for their culture it is more important “that the Jews do not enjoy peace and prosperity” than that they enjoy these privileges.

THE CULTURE OF GRATEFULNESS

In this sense, something similar happens with the Arab extremists in Europe: they want to “destroy” the very country that offers them peace, prosperity and opportunities for growth. In France, for example, Islamic extremists have murdered hundreds of their benefactors, with bombs or firearms, or beheading French citizens with knives or throwing them off the balcony, as happened with Sara Halimi z ”l. These criminals are refugees who escaped from their Arab countries where they were starving or persecuted or tortured by corrupt regimes or by other Islamists more extreme than them. And instead of being eternally grateful to France, the country that gave them refuge, welcomed them and “gave them everything without asking anything in return,” they dedicate themselves to destroying the country and their religion: In medieval best fashion, these Islamic extremists set churches on fire whenever they could. See, for example, this article and this article,  which dares to mention that in recent years dozens of churches in France have been desecrated, and in many cases burned, by French Islamists.

CONCLUSION

I’m not sure what the final result of this new conflict will be. Israel will have to prepare itself for a new type of fight much more complicated than the war against Iran, Hezbollah or the terrorists in Gaza. It is a new conflict in which the enemy does not need rockets or missiles but simple “knives” (see video below) or cars to carry out their deadly attacks  … Israeli Arabs are “neighbors” who live in Haifa, Yerushalayim, Tel-Aviv: they drive taxis, work in hotels, restaurants and hospitals. How many of them have become or will extremists? If they begin to rise up, murder and commit acts of violence, we might expect a civil war, because Israeli Jews are not going to sit idly by: they will defend themselves, especially if the Israeli police is still paralyzed.

We might be witnessing a clash of civilizations in the heart of Israel between those who want to live in peace and those who want to die in the process of killing their neighbors.

May HASHEM protect us from our enemies and grant us the strength and intelligence to neutralize them!

Killing a Jew for 5 Sheqels

UPDATE 2021

אין לנו על מי להשען אלא אבינו שבשמים

In the war of 1948, Israel miraculously defeated the five Arab countries that attacked her, after Israel declared its independence on Iyar 5, May 14 of that same year.

As we have already mentioned, none of the world powers at that time, the United States, France and England, came out to defend Israel. On the contrary, these countries established an arms embargo that placed Israel on the brink of extermination. Israel’s triumph in 1948 was, in my own words, a miracle of biblical proportions.

THE PARALYSIS OF THE ENEMY

After the first ceasefire, when the war started again, the Arab forces were paralyzed. Despite having Israel surrounded on all sides, the enemy did not advance. As if something was stopping them. Israel, on the other hand, began its counteroffensive, regaining territory and conquering land beyond the original borders. The prophecies that the Tora had announced in the Parasha we read this last Shabbat were fulfilled. The Creator promises His people (Leviticus 26: 7-8) that He will be with them when they go to war: “You will chase your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you. “

“YOU SHALL NOT BE UNGRATEFUL”

We Jews must be infinitely grateful to HaShem for His Providential intervention. As King David wrote in his Psalms, when he was saved from a certain death “I will sing Your praises and I will not remain silent; HaShem, my God, I will thank you forever. “  A Jew —who is permanently training himself to see Divine Intervention in his personal life— who does not see or does not declare his or her gratitude  to God for the birth and survival of Medinat Israel, in my opinion, is not only spiritually blind but is also accountable for the great sin of ingratitude. And there is no worse ingratitude than ingratitude to God.

ENGLAND, OF ARABIA

Of the three countries mentioned, the one that harmed Israel the most was Great Britain. England remained passive while thinking that Israel was going to lose the war. But intervened when realizing that Israel might win.

A couple of examples.

√ Jordan had the direct support of the English. The English trained their troops and supervised all their operations, especially in the fight for Jerusalem, which costed many Jewish lives. When Israel began to counterattack and bombed Jordan’s capital Amman, in reaction to the ongoing bombings of Tel Aviv, England threatened to destroy Tel-Aviv’s airports with its Royal Air Force. Israel had to withdraw.

√ In early January 1949, Israel, against all odds, was winning the war. Israel bombed Cairo and Damascus, and the Jewish army continued to advance towards the Suez Canal. The United Nations rushed to demand a ceasefire and declare an armistice. Israel, against its own interests, accepted the armistice. At that time Israel had already conquered Gaza, Rafiah, and much of the Sinai peninsula. And according to international law territories conquered in the war belong to the country that wins the war. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED WITH ALL THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD THROUGHOUT HISTORY.

ISRAEL IS DIFFERENT

Now: In an action that went against all historical precedents and military conquests, including the conquests of the English colonies themselves, Great Britain denied Israel this right. And threatened to intervene militarily against Israel if the Jewish State did not return the conquered territory, the Sinai peninsula, Gaza, Rafiah, to Egypt (A history of Israel. Howard Sachar, page 346). David Ben Gurion was strongly opposed to this unprecedented concession. Ben Gurion considered it unfair and inconceivable that the Arabs would not pay a price for the war that they themselves had launched!  And no one would have required the Arabs to give up their military conquests, if they had defeated Israel.

Ben Gurion said that Israel will return the Arabs the conquered territories when the Arabs return to Israel the 6,000 Jews who died in the war that they started”

HOW DO YOU SAY “PRESSURE” IN ENGLAND?

But the international pressure was so great that Israel, completely isolated, had to give in.

To this day Israel continues to pay the price for this concession.

Why?

Firstly, because the outrageous international impunity enjoyed by any country or organization.  that attacks Israel,  encourages them to attack Israel again.

Second, because Israel inadvertently set a very dangerous precedent: Israel is willing to accept conditions that are not required of any other country in the world! Like, “return” conquered territory, or repatriate enemies (Palestinian refugees) who voluntarily fled a war that their own allies started!

Instead of “bringing more peace” Israel’s permanent concessions only encouraged the Arab countries, with the approval of the great powers, to demand more and more from Israel.

Until today, in the United Nations, Israel is not considered as just one more state. Israel is the only country in the world that can be threatened with extermination without fear of global condemnation.  Israel is the only country that is permanently condemned, and accused of the very crimes that its accusers perpetrate with impunity, with the complicit silence of the United Nations.

As Bil’am prophetically said (Bemidbar 23: 9):  Israel  “is a nation isolated [by other nations] and that other peoples do not consider [Israel as one of them ].  We cannot forget that the nations of the world abandoned us when we needed them most: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. 

This is the first class, from 1840 until 1915. We dicussed how Zionism in embebed in our Tora; how the reform movement in 1840 tried to formulated a Mosaic religion withiut a state. 1860-1880 antisemitism pushing Jews to Erets Israel. The numer of Jews in Israel by 1905. The first colonies. 1905-1914 Israel under Ottoman Empire. First World War

MAIN POINTS OF DISCUSSION

We are a Nation. Not a religion! What is the difference? 

The Reform Movement: Religion without a State.

Secular Zionism: State without Religion.

TORA: Both are completely integrated. Ribbi Yehuda Bibas.

TESHUBA: Debarim 30. “Collective Return of the People of Israel to God’s Land. Return to Israel is returning to God.  

THE JEWISH POPULATION IN ISRAEL FROM 1880  

Before 1880: less than 25,000 Jews lived in the land of Israel. 

Between 1880 and 1914: tens of thousands of Jews came from Europe escaping persecutions.  

Rabbi Isaac HaCohen Kook (1865-1935): the power of anti-Semitism.  

Sir Moshe Montefiore (1784 -1885) and the Baron of Rothschild (1845 – 1934): Building colonies and creating jobs. 

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858-1922): The miraculous revival of the Hebrew language 

1904 a huge wave of Jewish immigration to US. Over 2 million Jews immigrated to the United States,1.5 million of them to New York in 20 years. No support for a Jewish State.  Not internal, not external. 

FIRST WORLD WAR

What happened on  July 28, 1914? 

1916: Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith  and Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

The difference between Catholic and Protestant attitudes to Jews 

Arthur Balfour (1848-1930)

Hayim Weizmann (1874-1952)

On April 23, 1920, San Remo, The League of Nations 

A few hours ago, I returned from Israel. We had the great merit of being in Jerusalem for several weeks, celebrating the wedding of two of our dear children. Besides the great happiness that we had as parents, we also enjoyed being in our beloved land, Israel, and more specifically in Jerusalem, Yerushalayim ‘ir haQodesh.

Israel is a land of miracles. Not only miracles of the past, in the days of our Kings and Prophets. Israel is a country where you also experience miracles today .”Identifying” a miracle is not easy .. it is easier to recognize a miracle when it already happened, than while it is actually happening to you. Our Sages said that “whoever experiences a miracle, can not identify it” (אין בעל הנס מכיר בניסו). There is a psychological barrier that says, “If it is happening to me, here and now, and I see it and I live it, it cannot  be a miracle.” In the next lines we will try to overcome this barrier.

וישבתם לטח בארצכם

To begin with, the feeling of “security” that I felt in Israel, I did not feel it anywhere else in the world. Nor in the safest neighborhoods in New York, let alone in South America.

At night you can walk in the streets of Yerushalayim, and  you do not feel insecure. The opposite, the Mamila shopping center or the old train station, which now is an area of luxurious  restaurants, at 11 or 12 at night, is full of people, mostly families with their children and grandchildren, enjoying peacefully the cool summer breeze of Jerusalem.

In Jerusalem, and throughout Israel, one sees many people with guns. Probably in no city in the world you would see so many men, especially civilians, carrying weapons. And yet, I did not feel fear. On the contrary, I felt more secure.  Because I trust the hands that hold these weapons. I can not imagine not having a panic attack at the sight of armed civilians walking freely in any other country in the world …

Personally, what surprises me most, is to see during the day very young children walking by themselves, very calmly and without fear. I have often seen a 6 or 7 years old child walking, or going up or down the bus, taking care of his or her little 4 or 5 years old brother or sister. I have lived in many countries and I never saw anything like it!

The most miraculous part of all this, is that this exceptional sense of security occurs ironically in the only country in the world whose existence is openly threatened. Israel is, literally, in the center of the Middle East, in the middle of the world’s most dangerous battlefield. Where every day hundreds, or thousands, of people are brutally murdered.

This sense of security is experienced in a country where our neighbors are our enemies … I remember in my first visit to Israel, our guide pointed to a construction site where all workers were Arabs. And he said, “When it comes to Israel, if you do not believe in miracles, you are not realistic.  And here’s the proof: the same hands that want to destroy Israel, are building it”.

וקבצתי אתכם מכל העמים

And then, the most important part of Yerushalayim. The Kotel HaMa’arabí, the Western Wall. I like to  pray at the Kotel on Friday night. Why the Kotel? Our rabbis said that although we no longer have the Bet haMiqdash, the Shekhina, a miraculous reflection of the Divine presence, still resides at the Kotel. Praying at the Kotel is praying as close as possible to HaShem. The closest to His dwelling pace. Experiencing in our souls an echo of His presence.

And what is special about praying at the Kotel on Friday night? Friday night you can experience the other miraculous dimension of the Kotel, the human dimension. Let me explain: we Jews, are unfortunately very divided: religious, non-religious; Sephardim, Ashkenazim; Hasidim, Mitnagdim; army, no army; 45% of Jews live in Israel, 55% outside of Israel; There are Yemenite Jews, Ethiopian, Russian, South American; They are Americans and there are the French jews (more present than ever). We are so different from each other. And usually you see the Hassidim with the Hassidim; soldiers with other soldiers; and the French with the French. Except on a Friday night at the Western Wall.  When I finish my Tefila, I like looking at the Kotel from the balcony, and observe what is probably the biggest miracle of our times. Witness, with my privileged eyes what our prophets were able to visualize only in their most optimistic prophecies: the gathering of the exiles (qibbuts galuyot); the end of 20 centuries of separation and division that our people suffered in the diaspora. Because every Friday night at the Kotel you see literally all the people of Israel represented in this special place. All together, with one and same feeling in the heart, עם אחד בלב אחד. An incredible human rainbow where Yehudim of all colors and backgrounds pray, sing and dance “together.” And nothing and no one separates them. I know of no other place in the world, or any other time, where you can witness such a miracle. Where you can recognize this incredible miracle that easily.

May HaShem allow us to continue enjoying many years of peace, security and unity in Eretz Israel. And all of us, who are still living in our voluntary exile, may we all merit to live very soon our final redemption, בב”א

אם-יִהְיֶה נִדַּחֲךָ, בִּקְצֵה הַשָּׁמָיִם מִשָּׁם, יְקַבֶּצְךָ ה ‘אֱלֹהֶיךָ, וּמִשָּׁם, יִקָּחֶךָ. וֶהֱבִיאֲךָ ה ‘אֱלֹהֶיךָ, אֶל-הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר-יָרְשׁוּ אֲבֹתֶיךָ וִירִשְׁתָּהּ; וְהֵיטִבְךָ וְהִרְבְּךָ, מֵאֲבֹתֶיךָ

  4 ‘דברים ל

The Tora speaks of reward and punishment for the mitsvot we do or fail to do. There are penalties established for individuals and collective punishments, which affect the entire Jewish people. The most severe collective punishment that the Tora stipulates for the rebellion of Israel is “exile”. So says, for example, Debarim 28: 64-65 “And then [if Israel abandons my Tora] HaShem will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other …. among those nations you will not find peace or a resting place … You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life … “.

But just as the Tora predicted the rebellion of Am Israel and the horrors of the exile, it also predicted the reconciliation and the return of Israel to their land (qibbuts galuiyot).

In chapter 30 of the book of Debarim (Deut.) This process is explicitly described. Let’s analyze it verse by verse.

In the previous chapter, as we said, the Tora states that if the people of Israel leave the Tora they will be taken into exile and live oppressed and persecuted by the nations. Now, the Tora says that a new thought will awake within the Jew.

30:1 “And when all these [bad] things will happen to you (= exile, persecution, suffering) … and you would reflect in your heart, while you are among the nations where HaShem your God has led you … “. This pasuq describes the beginning of Teshuba, our return to HaShem. This reconciliation begins with us. First, with a new way of thinking. Understanding that all the suffering, the bad things that happened to the nation of Israel, was predicted by the Tora thousands of years ago. Thereore,  and this is the “new” thinking, if leaving HaShem has caused all this suffering, if we return to Him, our exile and tribuations will end. This thought should awake a feeling: feeling closer to Hashem, realizing that He loves us as a father loves his children.

This is what the next pasuq says

30:2 “And then you woud come closer to HaShem your God and obey his voice,  all I’m commanding you this day, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul.” These thoughts and feelings must be translated into actions: observing the Tora, our covenant with HaShem. In a way, by observing the mitzvot the individual Jew is “resetting” the dormant covenant with HaShem, reactivating it.

Once we take the first step, it is the turn of HaShem. The greatest miracle is about to be detailed:

30:3 “And then [when this happens] HaShem your God will bring you back from among the captives (= the Jews who were exiled among all the nations of the earth), and He will have compassion on you, and He will gather you from all the peoples where HaShem your God has scattered you. “

HaShem’s response to our Teshuba is qibbuts galuiyot, ending our exile, bringing us back from all the nations of the earth to our own land.

Thus says the following pasuq

30:4 “Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens,  from there HaShem your God will gather you and bring you back  [to your land].”

No matter how far we are. HaShem will bring us back from exile. And would He take us?

30: 5 “HaShem your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors.”

The process of returning to the land of Israel is taking place today. More and more Jews return to the land that Hashem granted to our parents. Israel is a very prosperous country, more porsperous than ever, and the number of Yehudim living there has never been higher. No doubt there is still much to do and improve, but the fact is that our collective reconciliation but HaShem has begun. We are probably the most privileged generation of all Jewish history. We are living this ancient and beautiful prophecy. Moreover,  we ARE that prophecy.