The verse “it is a time of trouble for Jacob but out of it he will experience salvation” (Jeremiah 30) can be interpreted as saying that the troubles themselves can be the source of salvation. A time of trouble brings about salvation, and the deal signed with the accursed Hamas evildoers, in which they return hostages and we free thousands of murderous terrorists and retreat from Gaza is seen by many, including myself, as an extremely bad deal in a time of trouble. We will experience salvation as the hostages return, but it is still a terrible deal, and I am sad, frustrated and, yes, humiliated. If feel that Israel has been dishonored, and Israel’s honor is G-d’s Honor.
Israel was forced to give in to Hamas’ dictates because of the emotions Israelis felt regarding the hostages. Hamas humiliated us on Simchat Torah, wounded us cruelly and wickedly in ways that shocked the entire world. Hamas’ monstrous barbarity is indescribable. The organization’s primary goal was to humiliate us, its second to kidnap hostages, soldiers and civilians, and in that way to free the murderous and accursed terrorists – and it achieved its second goal as well as the first.
The blows we inflicted on Hamas during the war changed nothing, because what guides Hamas is the desire to hurt Israel, and now the organization can celebrate because it achieved its goals and humiliated us. King David’s famous elegy for Saul and Jonathan contains a request not to tell the story of their deaths in Ashkelon and Gath, so that the enemy will not rejoice. Our enemies know our Achilles’ heel, that every Jewish soul is precious to us. They know that when they hold our people hostage they can get whatever they want, thatwe will accept all their dictates just to get the hostages home. Now they know that they can go back to terror and even if they are arrested and imprisoned, the organization just needs to kidnap some Israelis, and those terrorists will be freed.
Several weeks before the Six Day War broke out, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook zts”l told his students about the emotional upheaval he experienced when the partition plan for Eretz Yisrael was announced, before the Jewish state was established. People danced in the streets, but he did not join them. He described his inability to celebrate and how he felt that he was being torn apart the way the holy land was being torn apart – “They have divided my land,” he cried – “where are our Shechem, Jericho and Bethlehem?” We were shocked then by the emotional way in which the Rav spoke. Afterwards, we know that Rav Tzvi Yehuda spoke to his friend Rav Charlap zts”l, and the two great Torah luminaries raised each other’s spirits, quoting the verse from Psalms “This is G-d’s work, it is wonderful in our eyes.”
This is how we felt when the peace treaty was signed with Egypt. The Israeli pubic celebrated the peace that was to come and the agreement signed by a right wing leader, Menachem Begin, hoping that a new era of regional peace was about to begin. People went to see the ceremony at which the agreement was announced, but I could not rejoice. The decision to sign a treaty was predicated on our leaving Sinai and on granting autonomy in Judea and Samaria. It sorely pained Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda at the time, but he did not come out in public as he had about other issues, because he did not want to come out publicly against a right wing government.
I remember the Shalit deal where the Prime Minister went out to greet his return and there was rejoicing, despite the release of over 1000 terrorists. I didn’t understand the unbridled joy. We knew that terrible things would result. And they did.
And now? There is a rabbi who said that the hostage deal is an instance of certain pikuach nefesh in the present and therefore overrides possible pikuach nefesh in the future. This viewpoint is derived, however, from the case of individual pikuach nefesh, one life versus another life, but we have to judge this situation on a national basis, one of the entire community of Israel, of Klal Yisrael. We are talking about an entire community here and the definitions and laws concerning a community are completely different from the laws for individuals. For example, fighting a war is a case of pikuach nefesh by definition, but we go out to war, even a war that is not an obligatory war and that is fought for economic reasons. When the subject is the nation, the goals and considerations are different. A devastating economic situation can lead to public danger, but that is not true for an individual.
I remember an IDF officer taken prisoner in the Yom Kippur War who was appointed to be the commander of the maintenance division when I myself was the rabbi of that unit. I introduced him to Rav Tzvi Yehuda and the officer asked the Rav if he should have died rather than allow himself to be taken prisoner because he was an officer. Rav Tzvi Yehuda answered that King Saul killed himself rather than be taken prisoner, which, had it happened, would have been a degrading circumstance for Israel. The officer said that he was not able to take his own life in the situation he was in, but that after meeting the Rav, he understands clearly that a person must sacrifice his life to avoid bringing dishonor to Israel. Today, however, the feeling is that Israel’s honor is not part of the equation. That is obvious when we see the disrespect shown the President, the Prime Minister and the cabinet. It is a result of postmodernity which views the individual as most important and the community as existing only to serve the individual and of no innate importance.
Another rabbi has said that the Torah was given on Mount Sinai to each of us on a personal basis, and only the importance of giving it over to each person necessitated its being given with an audience of hundreds of thousands. That is a nice thought, but we must not forget that we are a community, that the Torah was given to the Nation of Israel , and a person’s position is due to his being part of the entire nation.
The Jewish people are the presence of G-d in this world and each one of us is part of that. That is why a community’s considerations are totally different than those of an individual. Rav Avraham HaCohen Kook explained that a king possessed two Torah scrolls, one for himself and one for the laws pertaining to halakhot for the nation. Those laws were forgotten during the long exile, and they are not the same as those of the individual. For example, the laws of building the Holy Temple override personal loss caused by the building. The same is true of living in Israel even if there is danger involved, because in the long run the nation benefits and as a result each person benefits from it.
As far as the Nation of Israel is concerned, this deal is one that brings degradation and dishonor to our people. One does not make deals with terrorists. One kills them and erases them from the earth. And especially when we have to accept their dictates. That is why this is a really terrible deal in my eyes and in the eyes of many others, not just because of the dangers but because of the damage done to the honor of both the heavens and Israel.
We are people of faith and we know that whatever G-d does is for the best. We must recite a blessing on the good as well as the bad because everything comes from the Almighty. That was how it was when the land was divided, the time I described when Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda’s sadness was palpable. Perhaps his cries several weeks earlier are what brought on the Six Day War shortly afterwards that led to the expansion of our land. We thus see that our salvation emerges from our suffering, as the prophet Jeremiah said.
I have no intention of looking for the guilty parties, blaming anyone, or in telling the government what to do. We are all one and we are all in this together. We must hope that what will happen is the defeat of Hamas and its leaving Gaza so that the rulers there do not dare to engage in war against us, at least at first. And after that, with G-d’s help, we will merit the complete Redemption speedily in our time.
Hebrew by Dvir Amar, Translated by Rochel Sylvetsky
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