HaRav Shmuel Eliahuis Chief Rabbi of Tzfat.
The holiday of Hanukkah is approaching. Perhaps not surprisingly the People of Israel returned in repentance following the victory of the Hasmoneans. The triumph of the Maccabees revealed not only to the Jews, but to the entire world that the Creator of the Universe was the savior of the Jews. Similarly, following the successes and victories of Jacob, even his enemies call him Israel; they are the first to know that Jacob wins with the help of God.
This is what happened with the enemies of the Hasmoneans, who saw that the Lord aids Israel. Through Israel’s triumph they understood that He is a great and holy God, as it says, “You made a great and holy Name for Yourself in Your world, and for Your people Israel You made a great salvation and deliverance as on this day.”
About this wondrous process the prophet Haggai prophesies, saying that through the victory of the sons of the Hasmoneans the verse is fulfilled: “And I will shake all the nations, and the desire of all the nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of Hosts” (Haggai 2:6-9, and Rashi there).
Victory in cultural war as well.
The war of Mattityahu and his sons was against the Greek culture that had overtaken Israel and decreed: “Write upon the horn of the ox that you have no share in the God of Israel.” They forbade the observance of Shabbat, killed the mothers who circumcised their sons, and more. About them it is said: “When the wicked Greek kingdom stood against Your people Israel to make them forget Your Torah and to remove them from the statutes of Your will.”
Mattityahu and his sons fought against the Greeks and their allies and succeeded in removing the threat of the forced assimilation of Greece.
After the People of Israel saw the greatness of the victory, they awakened with great love of God. They saw the great miracles which God had performed for Israel and immediately abandoned Greek culture. They returned as children “to the inner chamber of Your house.” They cast the idols of Greece to the garbage: “And they cleared Your Temple.” They purified the Sanctuary from its defilement: “And they lit candles in the courtyards of Your holiness.”
This victory extracted from the Israelites all the best from within them; it ignited the light of the soul - a light expressed in the kindling of the Menorah in the Temple.
So too today.
Even today the People of Israel are awakening after the great victories over our enemies. The soul is burning. Hundreds of thousands who fought for hundreds of days, with the support of their wives and family members, cannot return to routine. Their soul has awakened; it does not go back to sleep.
The soldiers who saw the Divine Presence on the battlefield want to see the pleasantness of the Lord also in daily life. They cannot return to routine. They put on tzitzit, they lay tefillin. They came to Selichot. They want to pray to God, and they do not always know how. From the perspective of the soul, they are considered complete tsaddikim. They want to be tzaddikim also in the world of action.
About their great level of those whose sacrifice their lives for the nation, Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote in the name of the Ari z”l:
“Even if, Heaven forbid, we were the most wicked people in the world, behold, through the Sanctification of the Name and giving of our lives with all our heart and with all our soul, we are complete Tzaddikim, and there is the ability in our souls to ascend upward until the level of Binah” (Pri Etz Chaim, Sha’ar Keriyat Shema 12).
While they may not yet be religious in all of their ways, they can rise higher and higher and bring Redemption. We must be with them, assist them - they are our brothers.
This generation has already done t’shuvah.
In the last conversation between the Lubavitcher Rebbe and HaRav Mordechai Eliahu, my teacher and father, of blessed memory (6 Cheshvan 5752), the Rebbe said that the People of Israel have already done t’shuvah. “There is no person of Israel who has not contemplated repentance several times during his life - and through this he becomes, in one hour and in one moment, from a completely wicked person into a completely righteous person” (Vayechi 5751).
This is how Moshe was required to look at the People of Israel when he came to Mitzrayim to redeem them. So too we are required to look upon all of our soldiers and their families as complete tzaddikim. The first step is to know that God has performed these great miracles for us, which we have witnessed in our recent wars.