Let us speak for a moment about the Palestinians. Who are these people? How is it that suddenly they are making hell out of our lives? Is it not most remarkable that until only a few years ago nobody had ever heard about a Palestinian people and suddenly they became a central issue in world politics? Suddenly, they appeared out of nowhere-land without any real historical roots and instantly the world accepted them as a nation with considerable power.
Is it not most peculiar that since the Palestinians joined the stage of world politics, Jews surrendered to them the very first cities in Israel that God granted them in the days of Abraham, and later under the leadership of Joshua, in an attempt to make peace with them ? These cities include Shechem, Hevron and Jericho, as well as Judaism?s central city, Jerusalem. It seems that we lose the land in the same order as we received it. The first cities we inherited are the first ones to go. How bizarre.
In a most unusual passage in Devarim (32), called Haazinu, we read a song that was sung by Moshe at the end of his life. This song is one of the most difficult parts of all of the Torah to understand. Still, some of the verses speak for themselves. Between many crucial subjects, the misdeeds of the Jews are discussed and God informs us by way of this song of what the consequences will be. ?And I [God] said: I will hide My face from them and I will see what their end may be. They are a generation of confusion, children in which one cannot trust. They have caused My ?jealousy? with a non-god [i.e. trusting in other powers but God]. They have ?annoyed? Me with their nullities. And I will provoke them by a non-nation. Through a foolish vile nation will I provoke them to rage and resentment.? Again, we have to ask ourselves if these verses do not speak about our own condition, in which a non-nation, i.e., a group of people without historical roots or cultural identity, heaps terror after terror on us, driving us to panic, while simultaneously bringing its own people to total ruin.
The terrorism also reminds us of an observation by Rashi about a part of Moshe?s farewell speech, where he reminded the Israelites of one of their enemies, the Emorites, saying, ?The Emorites went out? and pursued you as bees do, they struck you in Seer, until Chorma.?(Devarim 1:44). Rashi questions the meaning of the statement ?like bees? and responds that just as a bee attacks a person, and immediately dies, so did the Emorites. Normally, a nation does not contemplate attacking its enemy knowing that the enemy?s form of retaliation would leave no survivors. Only unprecedented and totally ferocious hatred leads people to the decision to commit suicide, knowing only that they are able to hurt and kill many of their enemies on their way down. Hatred can have such power that it will get totally out of control, to the point that the person himself is no longer able to explain what the root of his hate is about. By that time, hatred will rule him, as he falls victim to it. In such a situation, there is no point in offering him any favors or compromises, and even total capitulation to his wishes will not be of any help. His hatred has been completely disconnected from its original motive. It has become hate for the sake of hate.
It is this hatred which has overtaken the Palestinian people and, just like bees, they bring disaster and death upon themselves. It is this psychological condition that we now witness in a people that we tried to help, even offering them a large part of our heritage. Yet hatred seems to blind them to such an extent that they can no longer see their own, better, future.
Let us understand this hatred not only from a psychological perspective, but also from a religious one. Again, we are reminded of a verse in the Torah which again may relate to our present circumstances: In Shemot (34:24), we read concerning the obligation of each male to come to the Temple on Pesach, Shavuot and Succot: ?Three times in the year shall all your males let themselves be seen close to the presence of the Lord God, the God of Israel.? And when you shall do so, i.e., when you will not only come to the Temple three times a year, but also fully live up to the moral and spiritual condition of that holy place, then: ?No human being will covet your land when you go up three times a year to the Temple.? (ibid.)
This is a most remarkable verse. How can it be that when all Jewish males find themselves in the court of the Temple on these days, that the country will not be overtaken by the enemy? When no soldier stands at the borders of the country, how can the land be secured from its enemies? Indeed, this is not possible under the normal condition of human experience. Such a situation is suicidal and such a biblical promise seems to be absurd. Looking carefully into these verses, we become aware of the fact that their message is not that our enemies will come to our borders and that God will stop them crossing over. What it does say is that the enemies will not even covet the land and will show no interest in entering or occupying it.
This is indeed most extraordinary. We are being told that the psychological condition of our enemies will drastically change once we behave the way we should. It seems to suggest that our behavior influences their psychological attitudes. Not just on a social level, but on a metaphysical level. Let us, however, not make the mistake of thinking that this frees our enemies from their responsibility. It does not say that they will lose their faculty to decide between right and wrong, and that they are compelled to attack our country like a preconditioned robot. What it means is that it will be harder for them to resist those subconscious elements calling for downfall, just like in the case of God hardening the heart of Pharaoh.
It is most important to realize that most of these verses and their rabbinical interpretations emphasize the need for supreme ethical behavior by the Jewish people. While it is definitely true that the observance of religious laws such as Shabbat and kashrut are of the utmost importance, it is most clear, as can be especially seen in the observations of the Netziv, that it is the ?mitzvot bein adam lechavero? - the laws between man and his fellow man - which seem to be crucial when the land needs securing. This should send us a most clear message.
It is possible to live a so-called ?religious life? without being religious. Society will not be able to function and will surely disintegrate when the observance of shabbat, kashrut and other rituals are celebrated, but our relationship with our fellowmen is wanting. We are reminded of a most important and profound observation made by the great sage Rabbi Meir Simcha HaCohen from Dvinsk (1843-1926) in his monumental commentary on the Torah, Meschech Chochma. On Shemot 14:29, Rabbi Meir Simcha draws our attention to a most unusual and problematic statement by the Torah concerning the cause of the flood of Noach. In Bereshit (6:11) we read: ?And the earth was (tishachet) corrupt before God and the earth was filled with (hamas) violence.? Rashi, ad loc., comments, ??Corruption? (Hashchata) means sexual immorality and idol worship and ?violence? (hamas) means robbery.? He then continues and makes the following comment, based on the Talmud (Sanhedrin 108): ?The divine decree [to bring the flood] was sealed because of robbery.? In other words, it was not the violation of sexual immorality or idol worship that ultimately caused the flood, but robbery.
This, argues Rabbi Simcha Meir, is most strange and seems to contradict Jewish Law. One does not become liable to the death penalty because one has robbed. According to the Torah, robbery is punished by financial penalties, never by capital punishment. Secondly, the prohibitions of idol worship and sexual immorality do include capital punishment. So how could God have brought the flood on all of mankind because of robbery? If anything, it should have been due to sexual immorality and idol worship. This matter is specifically so intriguing because one of the great principles of Judaism is that God Himself is obligated to act according to His own rulings (see Jerusalem Talmud, Rosh Hashana 1, 3a).
Rabbi Simcha Meir responds by disclosing a most unusual concept within Jewish Law, which is more than a little surprising. By doing so, he lays down a major principle with far reaching consequences. It is true, he argues, that individuals are liable to the death penalty when they are involved in sexual immorality or idol-worship. Yet, this is only true when the vast majority of their fellow men are not so involved. In such a case, the individual should have known better. After all, his fellow man made it abundantly clear to him that such behavior is unacceptable. Yet, what happens in the case when all of mankind gets involved in these practices? In such a case, argues Rabbi Meir Simcha, the death penalty no longer applies. The reason is obvious: When all men are involved in such acts, nobody knows any better. Once it becomes the norm and has turned into an accepted practice by all, one can no longer make anybody liable. To do so would be entirely unjustified. From where would the individual know that such practices are forbidden when all of mankind has accepted them as legitimate lifestyles?
However, this is only true in the case of such laws dealing with the relationship between man and God, such as idol worship or sexual immorality (in which both parties out of free will have consented to such a relationship). In these cases, God may forfeit His personal honor and forgive the offenders, but this is far from true in the case of robbery. It is impossible to argue that since all men are robbers, robbery is permitted and that the offender would not have known better. After all, the result of robbery is to be seen by all. It results in the breakdown of all of society. Nobody could argue that he did not know and considered robbery to be a norm. In fact, argues Rabbi Meir Simcha, with the increase of people robbing, the transgression worsens. While one or two robbers can only do limited damage, in a case where all of society starts stealing, the damage is far greater. Consequently, the normally required monetary penalty will be insufficient. After all, it is no longer robbery that people are guilty of, but the total destruction of society. Such a collective transgression demands a much stronger punishment, as it undermines all that society stands for. This, argues Rabbi Meir Simcha, is the reason why the generation of the flood became liable to capital punishment, because of robbery and not because of idol worship or sexual immorality. They had completely destroyed society. It was as if they had committed social suicide. Had they ?just? violated the laws of idol worship or sexual immorality, God would not have brought them the flood, since they would not have known better and such behavior would have been considered to be the norm.
Proof can be brought from a statement in the Jerusalem Talmud (Peah, chapter 1, mishna 1): ?In the generation of King David there were only righteous people, but because there were informers among them, they, the righteous people, fell and died in war. Yet, in the days of King Achav, many were involved in idol worship, but because there were no informers among them, they were victorious.? In the latter case, the verse (Vayikra, 16:16) ?He [Divine providence] will [still] dwell among them in their contamination? applies, but in the case of the informers it is written, ?He will be exalted above the heavens.? (Tehilim 57:6) In other words, Divine Presence will no longer find Itself among them. In the first case, people violated the moral code as far as their fellow men were concerned and therefore God was no longer prepared to have His Divine Presence stay with them, although there were many righteous people. In the second case, while they were idol worshippers, the people behaved properly to each other and the Divine ?indwelling? consequently remained with them, however terrible their ?religious? transgressions may have been.
A similar point is made by the sages when they asked which destruction of the two Temples was worse, the first destruction or the second one. The answer is most striking. The reason the first Temple was destroyed was idol worship and sexual immorality; whereas, the second Temple was destroyed because of ?meaningless hate,? although many used to learn Torah in those days. Surprisingly, it took only a few years before the second Temple was built, which means that the punishment for idol worship and sexual morality was limited. Yet once the second Temple was destroyed, no third one, throughout all the thousands of years since, was ever built, clearly informing us that ?meaningless hatred? between fellow Jews was considered much worse in the eyes of God than the violation of idol worship and sexual immorality. (Yoma 9a,b)
In other words there is overwhelming evidence that, on a national level, the commandments dealing with the relationship between man and his fellow man are absolutely crucial. While we cannot be sure, as mentioned before, that the different biblical and rabbinical texts apply to our precarious situation in the land of Israel at this hour, we should at least draw the conclusion that it is our duty to inspire ourselves and our fellow Jews to increase our efforts to take all these texts to our hearts and try to create an even better Jewish society.
It cannot be denied that there are few places in the world where so much kindness is done as in Israel. We are blessed with charity organizations of every possible kind, unheard of in other countries. As has been shown in the latest ?Operation Defensive Shield?, Israeli soldiers implement standards of moral warfare that no other nation in the world will even contemplate. In their utter frustration, these nations have now turned against us, because they cannot bear the knowledge that their leadership and armies are so far removed from such moral standards as displayed by our soldiers. This is our fate and we should be proud of it.
Still, there is much to do. Israel should start a major national campaign to advance the commandments between man and his fellow man. By creating outreach programs throughout the country via radio and television broadcasts, websites, e-mail, CDs and educational videos, it would be possible to reach hundreds of thousands of people. We should flood the Israeli society and the Jewish world at large with the most uplifting literature, presented in an attractive way, to inspire people to show the utmost sensitivity to the feelings of our fellow man. Advertisements on billboards at bus and train stations and in shopping centers, sponsored by major industries, should call on readers to be more patient with their fellow man, to smile and say hello to any passerby, to show courtesy, to help wherever possible and to make it a matter of honor and pride to be a real mensch. This can be done in highly effective ways without the need to preach and without becoming too ?sweet.?
Because of their many wars, Israelis have been afraid to show their emotions and of being called weak and compromising. Anybody acquainted with Israeli society knows that underneath every tough exterior there is a subtle soul looking for ways to help and serve one?s fellow Jew. Religious Jews have a most important task in all of this. By their exemplary behavior, they must be able to strike a spark in the hearts of other Jews. Religious Jews must realize that they have to become a light to their own nation before they can be a light to other nations. There cannot be any mediocrity. This will require that religious schools, seminaries and yeshivas will have to go out of their way to give more time to teaching and discussing the commandments between man and his fellow man. There is no point in suggesting stringencies in the laws of Shabbat and kashrut, if they are not accompanied by similar, if not even stricter, stringencies in our relationships with our fellow man. This is the great challenge facing religious Jewry and its leaders at this hour.
As mentioned above, all of the foregoing verses may apply to our current crisis, but there are no guarantees that they actually do. Nobody really knows. Still, I think we all agree that we should draw the necessary conclusions and act as if they do. Nothing is more uplifting than having an even better society. In fact, we should make the point that, in the event that these verses do indeed relate to our situation, then they carry a message of great hope. After all, what do they suggest? They submit that our future is first of all in our own hands and not in the hands of our enemies. This, I might suggest, makes the problem much easier to solve. All we need to do is put our house in order. It is not our foreign policy which will solve the problem, but our internal conduct that will make the real difference. This is possible. There is little doubt that with a lot of effort we will be able to change Israeli society for the better. This is especially so, since this society clearly carries the seeds for such exalted behavior, as has been proven over and over again in its short history.
The unprecedented feeling of unity at this hour is most striking. We witness how the religious and non-religious are able to work hand in hand. We can testify that there is a common recognition of brotherhood between Sefardim and Ashkenazim, between rich and poor. This should wake us up. Every crisis is also an opportunity. Without denying or in any form belittling the terrible tragedies in which so many people have been killed and hurt in the last few months, this crisis may one day turn into a blessing and function as a catharsis towards a better future. Let us work and pray that it will.
May the God of Israel grant us mercy and may we soon see the day in which tranquility will return to this great country.
[Part 2 of 2]
----------------------------------
Rabbi Lopes Cardozo, a renowned speaker, is Dean of the David Cardozo Academy - Machon Ohr Aaron (www.CardozoSchool.org).
Is it not most peculiar that since the Palestinians joined the stage of world politics, Jews surrendered to them the very first cities in Israel that God granted them in the days of Abraham, and later under the leadership of Joshua, in an attempt to make peace with them ? These cities include Shechem, Hevron and Jericho, as well as Judaism?s central city, Jerusalem. It seems that we lose the land in the same order as we received it. The first cities we inherited are the first ones to go. How bizarre.
In a most unusual passage in Devarim (32), called Haazinu, we read a song that was sung by Moshe at the end of his life. This song is one of the most difficult parts of all of the Torah to understand. Still, some of the verses speak for themselves. Between many crucial subjects, the misdeeds of the Jews are discussed and God informs us by way of this song of what the consequences will be. ?And I [God] said: I will hide My face from them and I will see what their end may be. They are a generation of confusion, children in which one cannot trust. They have caused My ?jealousy? with a non-god [i.e. trusting in other powers but God]. They have ?annoyed? Me with their nullities. And I will provoke them by a non-nation. Through a foolish vile nation will I provoke them to rage and resentment.? Again, we have to ask ourselves if these verses do not speak about our own condition, in which a non-nation, i.e., a group of people without historical roots or cultural identity, heaps terror after terror on us, driving us to panic, while simultaneously bringing its own people to total ruin.
The terrorism also reminds us of an observation by Rashi about a part of Moshe?s farewell speech, where he reminded the Israelites of one of their enemies, the Emorites, saying, ?The Emorites went out? and pursued you as bees do, they struck you in Seer, until Chorma.?(Devarim 1:44). Rashi questions the meaning of the statement ?like bees? and responds that just as a bee attacks a person, and immediately dies, so did the Emorites. Normally, a nation does not contemplate attacking its enemy knowing that the enemy?s form of retaliation would leave no survivors. Only unprecedented and totally ferocious hatred leads people to the decision to commit suicide, knowing only that they are able to hurt and kill many of their enemies on their way down. Hatred can have such power that it will get totally out of control, to the point that the person himself is no longer able to explain what the root of his hate is about. By that time, hatred will rule him, as he falls victim to it. In such a situation, there is no point in offering him any favors or compromises, and even total capitulation to his wishes will not be of any help. His hatred has been completely disconnected from its original motive. It has become hate for the sake of hate.
It is this hatred which has overtaken the Palestinian people and, just like bees, they bring disaster and death upon themselves. It is this psychological condition that we now witness in a people that we tried to help, even offering them a large part of our heritage. Yet hatred seems to blind them to such an extent that they can no longer see their own, better, future.
Let us understand this hatred not only from a psychological perspective, but also from a religious one. Again, we are reminded of a verse in the Torah which again may relate to our present circumstances: In Shemot (34:24), we read concerning the obligation of each male to come to the Temple on Pesach, Shavuot and Succot: ?Three times in the year shall all your males let themselves be seen close to the presence of the Lord God, the God of Israel.? And when you shall do so, i.e., when you will not only come to the Temple three times a year, but also fully live up to the moral and spiritual condition of that holy place, then: ?No human being will covet your land when you go up three times a year to the Temple.? (ibid.)
This is a most remarkable verse. How can it be that when all Jewish males find themselves in the court of the Temple on these days, that the country will not be overtaken by the enemy? When no soldier stands at the borders of the country, how can the land be secured from its enemies? Indeed, this is not possible under the normal condition of human experience. Such a situation is suicidal and such a biblical promise seems to be absurd. Looking carefully into these verses, we become aware of the fact that their message is not that our enemies will come to our borders and that God will stop them crossing over. What it does say is that the enemies will not even covet the land and will show no interest in entering or occupying it.
This is indeed most extraordinary. We are being told that the psychological condition of our enemies will drastically change once we behave the way we should. It seems to suggest that our behavior influences their psychological attitudes. Not just on a social level, but on a metaphysical level. Let us, however, not make the mistake of thinking that this frees our enemies from their responsibility. It does not say that they will lose their faculty to decide between right and wrong, and that they are compelled to attack our country like a preconditioned robot. What it means is that it will be harder for them to resist those subconscious elements calling for downfall, just like in the case of God hardening the heart of Pharaoh.
It is most important to realize that most of these verses and their rabbinical interpretations emphasize the need for supreme ethical behavior by the Jewish people. While it is definitely true that the observance of religious laws such as Shabbat and kashrut are of the utmost importance, it is most clear, as can be especially seen in the observations of the Netziv, that it is the ?mitzvot bein adam lechavero? - the laws between man and his fellow man - which seem to be crucial when the land needs securing. This should send us a most clear message.
It is possible to live a so-called ?religious life? without being religious. Society will not be able to function and will surely disintegrate when the observance of shabbat, kashrut and other rituals are celebrated, but our relationship with our fellowmen is wanting. We are reminded of a most important and profound observation made by the great sage Rabbi Meir Simcha HaCohen from Dvinsk (1843-1926) in his monumental commentary on the Torah, Meschech Chochma. On Shemot 14:29, Rabbi Meir Simcha draws our attention to a most unusual and problematic statement by the Torah concerning the cause of the flood of Noach. In Bereshit (6:11) we read: ?And the earth was (tishachet) corrupt before God and the earth was filled with (hamas) violence.? Rashi, ad loc., comments, ??Corruption? (Hashchata) means sexual immorality and idol worship and ?violence? (hamas) means robbery.? He then continues and makes the following comment, based on the Talmud (Sanhedrin 108): ?The divine decree [to bring the flood] was sealed because of robbery.? In other words, it was not the violation of sexual immorality or idol worship that ultimately caused the flood, but robbery.
This, argues Rabbi Simcha Meir, is most strange and seems to contradict Jewish Law. One does not become liable to the death penalty because one has robbed. According to the Torah, robbery is punished by financial penalties, never by capital punishment. Secondly, the prohibitions of idol worship and sexual immorality do include capital punishment. So how could God have brought the flood on all of mankind because of robbery? If anything, it should have been due to sexual immorality and idol worship. This matter is specifically so intriguing because one of the great principles of Judaism is that God Himself is obligated to act according to His own rulings (see Jerusalem Talmud, Rosh Hashana 1, 3a).
Rabbi Simcha Meir responds by disclosing a most unusual concept within Jewish Law, which is more than a little surprising. By doing so, he lays down a major principle with far reaching consequences. It is true, he argues, that individuals are liable to the death penalty when they are involved in sexual immorality or idol-worship. Yet, this is only true when the vast majority of their fellow men are not so involved. In such a case, the individual should have known better. After all, his fellow man made it abundantly clear to him that such behavior is unacceptable. Yet, what happens in the case when all of mankind gets involved in these practices? In such a case, argues Rabbi Meir Simcha, the death penalty no longer applies. The reason is obvious: When all men are involved in such acts, nobody knows any better. Once it becomes the norm and has turned into an accepted practice by all, one can no longer make anybody liable. To do so would be entirely unjustified. From where would the individual know that such practices are forbidden when all of mankind has accepted them as legitimate lifestyles?
However, this is only true in the case of such laws dealing with the relationship between man and God, such as idol worship or sexual immorality (in which both parties out of free will have consented to such a relationship). In these cases, God may forfeit His personal honor and forgive the offenders, but this is far from true in the case of robbery. It is impossible to argue that since all men are robbers, robbery is permitted and that the offender would not have known better. After all, the result of robbery is to be seen by all. It results in the breakdown of all of society. Nobody could argue that he did not know and considered robbery to be a norm. In fact, argues Rabbi Meir Simcha, with the increase of people robbing, the transgression worsens. While one or two robbers can only do limited damage, in a case where all of society starts stealing, the damage is far greater. Consequently, the normally required monetary penalty will be insufficient. After all, it is no longer robbery that people are guilty of, but the total destruction of society. Such a collective transgression demands a much stronger punishment, as it undermines all that society stands for. This, argues Rabbi Meir Simcha, is the reason why the generation of the flood became liable to capital punishment, because of robbery and not because of idol worship or sexual immorality. They had completely destroyed society. It was as if they had committed social suicide. Had they ?just? violated the laws of idol worship or sexual immorality, God would not have brought them the flood, since they would not have known better and such behavior would have been considered to be the norm.
Proof can be brought from a statement in the Jerusalem Talmud (Peah, chapter 1, mishna 1): ?In the generation of King David there were only righteous people, but because there were informers among them, they, the righteous people, fell and died in war. Yet, in the days of King Achav, many were involved in idol worship, but because there were no informers among them, they were victorious.? In the latter case, the verse (Vayikra, 16:16) ?He [Divine providence] will [still] dwell among them in their contamination? applies, but in the case of the informers it is written, ?He will be exalted above the heavens.? (Tehilim 57:6) In other words, Divine Presence will no longer find Itself among them. In the first case, people violated the moral code as far as their fellow men were concerned and therefore God was no longer prepared to have His Divine Presence stay with them, although there were many righteous people. In the second case, while they were idol worshippers, the people behaved properly to each other and the Divine ?indwelling? consequently remained with them, however terrible their ?religious? transgressions may have been.
A similar point is made by the sages when they asked which destruction of the two Temples was worse, the first destruction or the second one. The answer is most striking. The reason the first Temple was destroyed was idol worship and sexual immorality; whereas, the second Temple was destroyed because of ?meaningless hate,? although many used to learn Torah in those days. Surprisingly, it took only a few years before the second Temple was built, which means that the punishment for idol worship and sexual morality was limited. Yet once the second Temple was destroyed, no third one, throughout all the thousands of years since, was ever built, clearly informing us that ?meaningless hatred? between fellow Jews was considered much worse in the eyes of God than the violation of idol worship and sexual immorality. (Yoma 9a,b)
In other words there is overwhelming evidence that, on a national level, the commandments dealing with the relationship between man and his fellow man are absolutely crucial. While we cannot be sure, as mentioned before, that the different biblical and rabbinical texts apply to our precarious situation in the land of Israel at this hour, we should at least draw the conclusion that it is our duty to inspire ourselves and our fellow Jews to increase our efforts to take all these texts to our hearts and try to create an even better Jewish society.
It cannot be denied that there are few places in the world where so much kindness is done as in Israel. We are blessed with charity organizations of every possible kind, unheard of in other countries. As has been shown in the latest ?Operation Defensive Shield?, Israeli soldiers implement standards of moral warfare that no other nation in the world will even contemplate. In their utter frustration, these nations have now turned against us, because they cannot bear the knowledge that their leadership and armies are so far removed from such moral standards as displayed by our soldiers. This is our fate and we should be proud of it.
Still, there is much to do. Israel should start a major national campaign to advance the commandments between man and his fellow man. By creating outreach programs throughout the country via radio and television broadcasts, websites, e-mail, CDs and educational videos, it would be possible to reach hundreds of thousands of people. We should flood the Israeli society and the Jewish world at large with the most uplifting literature, presented in an attractive way, to inspire people to show the utmost sensitivity to the feelings of our fellow man. Advertisements on billboards at bus and train stations and in shopping centers, sponsored by major industries, should call on readers to be more patient with their fellow man, to smile and say hello to any passerby, to show courtesy, to help wherever possible and to make it a matter of honor and pride to be a real mensch. This can be done in highly effective ways without the need to preach and without becoming too ?sweet.?
Because of their many wars, Israelis have been afraid to show their emotions and of being called weak and compromising. Anybody acquainted with Israeli society knows that underneath every tough exterior there is a subtle soul looking for ways to help and serve one?s fellow Jew. Religious Jews have a most important task in all of this. By their exemplary behavior, they must be able to strike a spark in the hearts of other Jews. Religious Jews must realize that they have to become a light to their own nation before they can be a light to other nations. There cannot be any mediocrity. This will require that religious schools, seminaries and yeshivas will have to go out of their way to give more time to teaching and discussing the commandments between man and his fellow man. There is no point in suggesting stringencies in the laws of Shabbat and kashrut, if they are not accompanied by similar, if not even stricter, stringencies in our relationships with our fellow man. This is the great challenge facing religious Jewry and its leaders at this hour.
As mentioned above, all of the foregoing verses may apply to our current crisis, but there are no guarantees that they actually do. Nobody really knows. Still, I think we all agree that we should draw the necessary conclusions and act as if they do. Nothing is more uplifting than having an even better society. In fact, we should make the point that, in the event that these verses do indeed relate to our situation, then they carry a message of great hope. After all, what do they suggest? They submit that our future is first of all in our own hands and not in the hands of our enemies. This, I might suggest, makes the problem much easier to solve. All we need to do is put our house in order. It is not our foreign policy which will solve the problem, but our internal conduct that will make the real difference. This is possible. There is little doubt that with a lot of effort we will be able to change Israeli society for the better. This is especially so, since this society clearly carries the seeds for such exalted behavior, as has been proven over and over again in its short history.
The unprecedented feeling of unity at this hour is most striking. We witness how the religious and non-religious are able to work hand in hand. We can testify that there is a common recognition of brotherhood between Sefardim and Ashkenazim, between rich and poor. This should wake us up. Every crisis is also an opportunity. Without denying or in any form belittling the terrible tragedies in which so many people have been killed and hurt in the last few months, this crisis may one day turn into a blessing and function as a catharsis towards a better future. Let us work and pray that it will.
May the God of Israel grant us mercy and may we soon see the day in which tranquility will return to this great country.
[Part 2 of 2]
----------------------------------
Rabbi Lopes Cardozo, a renowned speaker, is Dean of the David Cardozo Academy - Machon Ohr Aaron (www.CardozoSchool.org).