What's going to happen to the religious settlements in Gaza, in light of the prime minister's effort to eradicate the Jewish presence from that area? That depends on the settlers themselves, and the strength of their connection to the Almighty. The stronger the connection, the less likely it is that the government will be able to drive them off their land.
There's a popular saying nowadays that it doesn't really matter whether you believe in God, as long as you're a good person. This saying is false. It matters a great deal whether you believe in God.
Just being a good person doesn't give you the courage to stand up for the truth when all the world is against you. Just being a good person doesn't necessarily give you the ability to truly distinguish between right and wrong. And just being a good person doesn't give you the power to overcome seemingly impossible odds, or perform seemingly impossible feats.
But Jewish history shows that having sufficient faith in God does give one the power to do these things.
When I speak of faith, I don't mean mere intellectual belief, where we speak the words, but don't do the deeds. I also don't mean an attitude in which we pride ourselves on how close we are to Hashem, while feeling contempt for those who we think are on a lower level than ourselves. This type of attitude contains arrogance and conceit, and will drive the Divine Presence away from us.
To reclaim our destiny, we have to draw the Divine Presence closer. To do this, we have to have the kind of faith that sees God's hand in every aspect of creation; the kind of faith that makes serving God more important than fulfilling any personal ambitions of our own; the kind of faith that sees the spark of God inside each and every person, even if the person himself doesn't know it's there, and even if the person is a mortal adversary who must be eliminated on the battlefield.
The settlers of Gaza are facing a major test of faith. If they resist being expelled from their homes, they could face prison sentences, or even injury or death. But if they meekly submit to the threat of force, and give up land that God has promised to the Jewish nation, not only will Israel itself shrink in size, but the spiritual stature of the entire Jewish people will be diminished. It will be a defeat not only for the settlers, but for all God-fearing Jews, and ultimately for all Jews.
Passing the test means staying on the land. Failing it means being removed from the land. The Almighty will assist the settlers in direct proportion to their faith and trust in Him. If their faith is great enough, the government will either bend or break, but it will not be able to impose its will on them or force them to abandon their homes. If their faith is really great, they'll be able to stay in their homes with no violence or bloodshed whatsoever. This is the goal to strive for.
Much speculation has been written about why the prime minister has reversed a lifetime of commitment to the settlement movement and now seeks to liquidate the very communities that he so avidly supported in the past. Perhaps one key to his behavior is the fact that he's always been a physical warrior, but never a spiritual one. His approach to battle has always been based solely on physical and material factors, combined with human brainpower, and he's enjoyed great success on the battlefield.
But now he perceives that the global physical balance is against Israel, and so he feels a need to make compromises that would have been unthinkable before. The kind of help that can come from Above, and what we must do to merit that help, does not seem to have entered his calculations.
No doubt the prime minister is convinced that his expulsion plan is good for the nation, perhaps in the same way that a chess player will sacrifice a pawn in order to position himself to capture a more important piece. And like a chess player, the prime minister reveals his strategic thinking to no one, in order that the adversary not be alerted to his real objectives. But no matter how clever or convoluted his reasoning may be, the plan still contains a fundamental flaw: it fails to recognize that Israel's struggle is primarily spiritual and not physical.
Only when we recognize the supremacy of God, and embrace the covenant with confidence and joy, can we be assured that all of our paths will lead to success. But the prime minister has shown through his actions that he fears the international community more than he fears his Maker, and he trusts his foreign allies more than he trusts his Creator. This is not the type of leadership that will get Israel safely through its present crisis.
May the Almighty quickly provide us with leaders who understand that the real battle is not against our external enemies, but against the doubts and fears and lack of faith in our own souls; and that once we conquer these, we'll be able to overcome our external enemies with ease, and God's promises to Israel will at last be fulfilled.
There's a popular saying nowadays that it doesn't really matter whether you believe in God, as long as you're a good person. This saying is false. It matters a great deal whether you believe in God.
Just being a good person doesn't give you the courage to stand up for the truth when all the world is against you. Just being a good person doesn't necessarily give you the ability to truly distinguish between right and wrong. And just being a good person doesn't give you the power to overcome seemingly impossible odds, or perform seemingly impossible feats.
But Jewish history shows that having sufficient faith in God does give one the power to do these things.
When I speak of faith, I don't mean mere intellectual belief, where we speak the words, but don't do the deeds. I also don't mean an attitude in which we pride ourselves on how close we are to Hashem, while feeling contempt for those who we think are on a lower level than ourselves. This type of attitude contains arrogance and conceit, and will drive the Divine Presence away from us.
To reclaim our destiny, we have to draw the Divine Presence closer. To do this, we have to have the kind of faith that sees God's hand in every aspect of creation; the kind of faith that makes serving God more important than fulfilling any personal ambitions of our own; the kind of faith that sees the spark of God inside each and every person, even if the person himself doesn't know it's there, and even if the person is a mortal adversary who must be eliminated on the battlefield.
The settlers of Gaza are facing a major test of faith. If they resist being expelled from their homes, they could face prison sentences, or even injury or death. But if they meekly submit to the threat of force, and give up land that God has promised to the Jewish nation, not only will Israel itself shrink in size, but the spiritual stature of the entire Jewish people will be diminished. It will be a defeat not only for the settlers, but for all God-fearing Jews, and ultimately for all Jews.
Passing the test means staying on the land. Failing it means being removed from the land. The Almighty will assist the settlers in direct proportion to their faith and trust in Him. If their faith is great enough, the government will either bend or break, but it will not be able to impose its will on them or force them to abandon their homes. If their faith is really great, they'll be able to stay in their homes with no violence or bloodshed whatsoever. This is the goal to strive for.
Much speculation has been written about why the prime minister has reversed a lifetime of commitment to the settlement movement and now seeks to liquidate the very communities that he so avidly supported in the past. Perhaps one key to his behavior is the fact that he's always been a physical warrior, but never a spiritual one. His approach to battle has always been based solely on physical and material factors, combined with human brainpower, and he's enjoyed great success on the battlefield.
But now he perceives that the global physical balance is against Israel, and so he feels a need to make compromises that would have been unthinkable before. The kind of help that can come from Above, and what we must do to merit that help, does not seem to have entered his calculations.
No doubt the prime minister is convinced that his expulsion plan is good for the nation, perhaps in the same way that a chess player will sacrifice a pawn in order to position himself to capture a more important piece. And like a chess player, the prime minister reveals his strategic thinking to no one, in order that the adversary not be alerted to his real objectives. But no matter how clever or convoluted his reasoning may be, the plan still contains a fundamental flaw: it fails to recognize that Israel's struggle is primarily spiritual and not physical.
Only when we recognize the supremacy of God, and embrace the covenant with confidence and joy, can we be assured that all of our paths will lead to success. But the prime minister has shown through his actions that he fears the international community more than he fears his Maker, and he trusts his foreign allies more than he trusts his Creator. This is not the type of leadership that will get Israel safely through its present crisis.
May the Almighty quickly provide us with leaders who understand that the real battle is not against our external enemies, but against the doubts and fears and lack of faith in our own souls; and that once we conquer these, we'll be able to overcome our external enemies with ease, and God's promises to Israel will at last be fulfilled.