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| IDF solider in prayer (Chabad) |
Implied by these comments is the hubris of knowing why God is doing this to His people. Well, if we want to go down the dubious road of knowing the mind of God, I would suggest another reason for this war. One that is backed up by virtue of the near complete unity we are all now experiencing among our people - in contradistinction to the unprecedented divisions among our people just before the war.
The divisions in Israel between right and left; between religious and secular were so strident, that many feared Israel was descending into an inevitable civil war. The debate was not limited to Israel. It expanded to the entirety of the Jewish people worldwide.
The problem is not - as implied by the abovementioned remedy - in our relationship between man and God (Bein Adam L'Makom). The level of Torah study and Mitzvah observance (the hallmark of Bein Adam L'Makom) observed by the very people these leaders were addressing is about as high as it has ever been. The problem is in our relationship between man and his fellow man (Bein Adam L’Chaveiro). We, the Jewish people, need to look inside ourselves to repair the divide that exists between us.
If we want to speculate about why ‘God is doing this to us’ that would be my guess.
Those were my thoughts upon reading the most recent edition of Religious Zionist publication HaMizrachi. It was published just a few weeks before Hamas’s savage attack..
That issue was dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. Therein my good friend Rabbi Leonard Matanky published the words of the late Rosh HaYeshiva of Yehivat Har Etzion, Rav Yehuda Amital. It was in the context of giving Israeli troops fighting on the front emotional and religious and support. The words I used to ‘explain’ why we are going through this were not mine. They were the almost identical words of Rav Amital on that day, 50 years ago. They are as valid today as they were then. Perhaps even more so since the the divisions over the past year have been greater than they have ever been.
As I always say, I am not God’s accountant. I do not claim to know the mind of God. And neither do the rabbinic leaders that urged greater adherence to faith and and observance. Despite their legitimate credentials as leaders by virtue of their massively greater knowledge of Torah than the rest of us.
I would suggest, however, that if Rav Amital were alive today he would be saying the same thing he did then. And if there is anything we can surely improve upon that has been clearly missing before October 7th it is the Bein Adam L'Chaveiro that would presage the unity of the Jewish people. It exiists now. But will it last? I wish I can say that it will. But I am not optimistic.
