These have been dramatic times in Israel as across the world, with many unexpected twists and turns. I am sorry I have been unable to offer commentary for several months as I have been quite poorly with a succession of health issues and, sad to say, a depression out of which only now, as we enter the season of our Redemption, do I feel I am starting to emerge.
This bout of poor health began directly after incoming US President Donald Trump, just prior to his inauguration, made his threat that if Israel’s hostages in Gaza were not released immediately, all hell will break loose. The following morning, without at first understanding why, I began violently throwing up, could not function, lay helpless in my bed, could not eat for days, became seriously dehydrated and weak to the point that I felt death staring me in the face.
For close to a year and a half Israeli forces had been fighting unsuccessfully to free the hostages at the cost of nearly a thousand soldiers killed, many thousands seriously injured, maimed and traumatized for life, families destroyed… Since it was obvious that American soldiers would not be sent in on the ground on such a perilous mission, who did Mr Trump expect to unleash his promised hell if not the Israeli army, and at what further cost?
The fact is that, although we have seen a few living hostages released in dribs and drabs together with the corpses of some who died or were killed in captivity, nearly sixty others are still being held in dire conditions, and as of this moment Hamas have by no means dislodged from Gaza. In retrospect Mr Trump’s rhetoric sounds empty.
Like many Israelis and Jews and our allies across the world who are tense, exhausted and literally suffering in many ways, I have no doubt that my personal health issues have in no small measure been exacerbated on account of this painful protracted war of attrition coming at us from so many directions.
Since Trump’s return to the White House there has indeed been a palpable shift for the better in US policy towards Israel, which under outgoing President Biden had reached a point where the administration was actively seeking to bring down Israeli prime minister Netanyahu and sabotage the army’s war efforts. The current US administration has released vital weapons purchased by Israel that Biden had impounded, and has given the green light to more aggressive military strategies against the Hamas terror entity and Israel’s other enemies.
The specter of a nuclear Iran is at the center of most Israelis’ concerns at present, yet compared to a year ago Israel is in a far superior position to take action if necessary, with Iran’s air defenses compromised, Hezbollah seriously weakened in Lebanon, Hamas under siege in Gaza, Syria in the throes of civil war, and the Houthis in Yemen now being systematically pounded by US forces.
However, I do not believe that sheer military might has the power to overcome the religious fanaticism of Jihadi radicals which is stoking all these wars, and which is advancing by leaps and bounds in Britain, France and other European countries as well as in America, Africa and Asia. Radicalized Moslems are increasingly asserting their dominance to the point where they have instituted extensive no-go areas of their own in major cities while terrorizing citizens everywhere with stabbings, robbery, violent assaults, rape, car rammings and other crimes.
The police in these countries have largely given up trying to protect the peaceful native citizen population, being mainly concerned to avoid their being accused of racism or getting hurt by Moslem mobs and gangs, from whom over and over again they simply flee. With the exception of very few, the mainstream politicians fear to say a word against this aggressive Moslem intimidation because they depend on their votes, while the liberal judiciary have destroyed any remaining deterrence in the legal system by systematically showing bias and softness to Moslem criminals while penalizing their victims.
With China threatening Taiwan, North Korea menacing South Korea, and Russia fighting Ukraine, the rising specter of Islamic radicalism across the globe may seem like just one more trouble in a benighted world. But at the very least we may take comfort in the fact that aggressive Moslem chauvinism is one of the clearest signs that we are on the very brink of the final Redemption. For our sages taught that the Son of David will only be revealed when the “wicked kingdom”, the alliance of Edom and Ishmael, will spread across the world for nine months, parallel to the nine months of human gestation (Sanhedrin 98b).
If only the profound divisions within Israeli society could also be seen as a sign of Mashiach’s imminent coming! Mass demonstrations continue daily against the government’s handling of the war, the hostage situation and judicial reform at a time when the supreme court, the attorney general, leading generals and forces in the country’s intelligence and security agencies are themselves fighting a fifth column campaign against the prime minister and his government, fueled by the left-dominated mainstream media. Not only has much of the public been shocked by the intelligence failures that allowed the October 7 Hamas invasion; even more shocking is the refusal of most of those responsible to admit their failure.
After my having spent close on three months trying to evade reality by snuggling under the bed covers or staring into blank space, finding no comfort in news updates and social media, I hope I have finally internalized that we really are at the stage where “We have none other to depend upon except our Father in Heaven” (Sotah 49b). Ordinary citizens feel helpless to make any significant impact against corrupt governments, compromised judges, paralyzed police, uncontrolled crime, pernicious corporate policies and so many other evils.
Yet where we all do have the power to exert influence is through our prayers and entreaties to the One God, who indeed we believe to be above, behind and within all that takes place in this world. Except that He hides behind a veil of concealment until something stirs within us to strip off the veil and engage directly with Our Father in Heaven, who is here at our side and within our very selves at this moment and always.
To me this is the message of the coming festival of Pesach, starting Saturday night April 12, when we will sit down to the Seder Night and relive the story of our Exodus from Egypt thousands of years ago, because this is our promise that God will again finally redeem us after all of our present troubles.
We need to heighten our trust in the path of Torah and prayer that we have chosen, and to strengthen our faith in the power of our words of entreaty to our Father in Heaven and our fulfillment of His precepts to love and show kindness to one another. For Mashiach comes to mobilize this power so as to conquer the world without shooting a single bullet.
As long as our enemies seek to kill us, we have no option but to fight them militarily, but we must simultaneously pursue our Torah path with full force and self-confidence. I recently came across a passage that seems to put across the point precisely.
In the closing verses of his prophecy, Habakuk declares:
I heard and my bowels quaked, my lips quivered at the sound; rot entered into my bone, I trembled where I stood. Am I to come to the place of my repose only to be destined there for a day of trouble, for a people to come to attack us?
Though the fig tree does not bud and no yield is on the vine, though the olive crop has failed and the fields produce no grain, though sheep have vanished from the fold and no cattle are in the pen,
Yet will I rejoice in God, exult in the God who delivers me.
Habakuk 3:16-18
The classic rabbinical Bible commentator Metzudat David (Rabbi David Altschuler of Prague1687-1769) ) explains the allusions of the prophet’s allegory as follows:
The report that he heard which caused him such terror was that “I am to come to the place of my repose only to be destined there for a day of trouble”, namely that Israel will come back to our land only to face many legions of enemies, as if the ingathering would merely subject us to the persecution of the forces of Gog and Magog.
For “the fig tree does not bud” – Israel, who are compared to the fig tree have as yet not acquired the necessary strength and courage to stand against them in war. There is “no yield on the vine, the olive crop has failed, the fields produce no grain,sheep have vanished from the fold and no cattle are in the pen” – They do not as yet have the necessary determination and they do not understand military strategy and how to stand against them
Metzudat David ad loc.
With all the firepower and sophistication of the Israel Defense Forces, how did they sit back passively and allow terrorists of every complexion to flourish for decades under their noses in Gaza, Lebanon, Judea and Samaria? How come the IDF are only now beginning to show a fraction of the force at their disposal and have still not succeeded in decisively dislodging the terrorists?
Surely the reason is that we do not have enough faith in the absolute justice of our cause and the urgent need for complete victory against all our enemies. We fight half-heartedly. But Israel’s war against Hamas, Iran and our other enemies is not merely about attaining security for her citizens. The Jihadis make no secret of the fact that this is a religious war, and we need to take them at their word and fight them because they categorically deny the Torah and the truth of the prophecy of Moses, and they seek to annihilate the entire Jewish people, God forbid.
Not only must we have rock-solid faith in the justice of our cause. We must also have confidence in the power of our prayers and mitzvot to swing history in the direction of complete Redemption. For Israel are God’s chosen people, and His ultimate purpose in sending all these troubles is only to squeeze us to the point that we let go of our pride, submit to His Torah, and put all our trust in Him.
May I wish you an uplifting and inspiring Pesach. May we truly feel and rejoice in our freedom as the beloved children of the One God.
