Rabbi Tzvi Yisrael Tau is head of the Har HaMor Yeshiva in Jerusalem.
In explaining how soldiers from the House of David set forth to war, Rabbi Kook notes that they would go forth “with joy to die a hero’s death of holiness and valor in waging a war of Hashem.”
The expression “b’simcha”- joyfully – is seemingly surprising. After all, wars are exceedingly ugly and distasteful. The anguish over the martyrs and victims is also very great – what is the relevance to simcha? The answer is that there is absolutely no contradiction between the differing emotions of anguish and joy during war. The love of Hashem and the love of Israel, which reach their fullest and most supreme expression in the pinnacle of sacrificing one’s life, are filled with joyousness and spiritual transcendence.
The joy, needless to say, doesn’t come from the war itself, which, in and of itself, is an evil, ugly, lowly matter, abounding in personal suffering and pain. Rather, the joy comes from the great Kiddush Hashem which fills our emotions and longings, and for which we are prepared to sacrifice all earthy things – this is the joy found in the raising up of the banner of Israel, and in the removal of impurity from the world.
When Israel was at war, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook was totally filled with a spirit of valor and joy, radiating encouragement and inspiration to his students in the yeshiva, and to those who were going off to battle. His elevated spirit stemmed from his fervent anticipation and yearning to see the glory of the Nation raised on high. When he was told about soldiers who had been killed, he would break out in bitter tears, but after a few passing minutes, a joyous, heroic countenance would settle upon him once again.
We could all see his determination in standing strong and joyous throughout the day, in anticipation of the great national salvation which was in the making. He would attend funerals, as much as he was able in his advancing years, and he deeply felt the anguish of the Nation, but, hand in hand with all of the pain, he clung to a higher ideal and to his aspiration to witness G-d’s honor uplifted, along with the honor of Israel.
He refused to listen to expressions of weakness at all. When people came to him worried, hounded by depression and despair, he would cry out, “Shmirat HaLashone!” Guard your tongue! When our soldiers were fighting, it was impossible to bring complaints and worries before him, similar to Mattitiyahu’s rebuke of his sons, “You’re shocked and distressed?!” Get thee forth to battle!
At a time of war, we experience all of the terrible suffering and pain of Israel, yet we rise up above this with a feeling of joy over the general Sanctification of G-d which comes to pass through the defeat of the world’s evil doers, and we transcend all depression and despair, all despondency and melancholy spirit.
Even more than this – it is precisely the love of G-d which gives birth to the deepest feeling of pain over the loss of each individual Jewish soul. Our deep connection to the holiness of the Jewish People, the recognition of their lofty stature in this generation of revival, and our love for the honor of G-d which is magnified by their sacrifice, these are the things which bring us to tears and to the deepening of our anguish.
Our mourning stems from an encompassing perspective, which appreciates the value of the Nation as a whole, and thus every individual becomes even more important and valued, and his absence pains and anguishes us because it causes a delay in the complete appearance of the full light of our National Soul, and the full light of the Shechinah, the wholeness of which is necessary in rectifying the world through the establishment of the Kingdom of G-d over the earth.
However, with heartfelt courage and clear recognition that everything is a necessary part in bringing G-d’s plan for Redemption to completion, we are happy over the Kiddush Hashem which increases and manifests itself in the eyes of those who care to see. “In the destruction of the wicked there is joy.”
It is important to emphasize that all delays (such as losses in battle or divisions of our Land) merely seem that way on the surface. The essential, pre-determined desire of Hashem to bring about the Redemption; the unalterable fact of the eternity of Am Yisrael and our destined Salvation, these are certainties which cannot be curtailed. Whatever appears to be in our eyes a setback and a delay is, in the depths of truth, serving to assist the appearance of G-d’s wholeness in the world.
Nonetheless, the ideal is that these things come to pass in front of everyone’s eyes, in a clearly beneficiary manner, so that it will no longer be necessary to receive G-d’s goodness in a complicated fashion, which refines and cleanses through sufferings in order to advance us toward perfection.
Rabbi Kook calls on us to remember that the Clal (overall Community of Israel) must always be infinitely elevated over the prat (individual), and that it is forbidden to divorce oneself from the overall community for the sake of the individual, even in cases of personal loss and mourning. On the contrary, the essential principle must be to elevate the individual and include him within the overall collective, as the Rambam writes in a letter: “A person should always look to well-being of the general community, and not look to his own private interests.”
Therefore, personal sorrow does not have the power to weaken, G-d forbid, or darken, even any small sliver of the great light of our all-encompassing love for our Nation. This all-encompassing union and identity with the needs, desires, aspirations, and goals of Clal Yisrael comes precisely from the love of G-d, Blessed Be He, and the joy of His Salvation.
[Translated by Tzvi Fishman]