Whereas there’s little that is moral or even fair, at a intellectual level, about bullies coveting our land and trying to attain it by insidious means (‘cause they can’t win in a fair “altercation” of brain or of brawn), it disappoints me that we, as a nation, are not responding with more fervor to the goings on. Sure, Moshiach is promised to arrive when all of the lands unite against Israel, but I’d think a little fervor, on our part, is in order.
Passion is appropriate when tyrants are given a long leash. It was this Holy Land, after all, in the most recent military conflagration, which controlled her fire when being pummeled by vast numbers of propelled enemy weapons. It was this Holy Land, after all, which struck surgically at the opposition, rather than throwing her missiles into the air, per se, heedless of where they might come down, as would have been justified by the other side’s actions. It is this Holy Land, after all, which continues to send humanitarian aid to her enemies and to admit them to her hospitals because we, the Jews of Israel put life before just about anything else.
Sadly, it is this Holy Land, after all, which is hunched over and is nearly playing dead. Except for the rationale of profits, or for dreams of future profits (logical, but evil as an end), I don’t get the gist of our “leaders’ ” motivation. Even if those politicos are selfish to a point of fiduciary exclusion, don’t they want to survive? Don’t they care about their families and their friends? Don’t they want to enjoy children and grandchildren?
Color me naïve, but I had assumed that even the most self-serving of individuals wanted more than to be king of this island for a fleeting span. Breathing is so underrated.
Meanwhile, Hassan Nasrallah and his cronies can stomp their collective feet, wave their sabers and make much noise and smoke from here to eternity (which, itself might occur sooner than later given Iran’s arsenal). Most homespun Israelis could not care less. The UN can pass resolution after resolution. Most homespun Israelis could not care less. We denizens of this sacred realm are waiting for a catalyst. We are willing to act.
In this season, in Parsha Veyeishev, we contemplate Yoseph’s successful solution, specifically (albeit after a very long time in jail), to his trouble with the wife of Potiphar, an important Egyptian official. We learn of Yoseph’s refusal, in general, to divest his faith. No matter how high up the foreign food chain Yaakov’s son climbed, including to the height of viceroy, Yoseph held fast to the essence of Yiddishkeit.
What’s more, in this season of Chanukah, we read of Yehudite’s successful confrontation of Holofernes, a mighty Syrian-Greek general and we study the deeds of Hannah, who rallied the Jews against the barbaric Greek requirement that Jewish maidens sleep first with outlander officials and only thereafter to their husbands
Yehudite, daughter of Yochanan the high priest, murdered her advisory without automated weapons and at close proximity. Hannah, Daughter of Mattathias, son of Yochanan, exposed herself to her wedding guests in order to call attention to the outlanders’ wicked custom. Those homespun Jews were willing to act.
Additionally, we celebrate that the Maccabees refused to yield their Yiddishkeit to the wiles of the ruling crowd. No matter how hard alien powers pressed them, including the alien invalidation of basics like Sabbath and like brit milah, that small band of warrior-scholars held fast to the essence of Yiddishkeit. Eventually, they even defeated a mighty military power. Those homespun Jews were willing to act.
Accordingly, these days, it’s more disconcerting that we Israelis fall to submissiveness rather than to risk. Our modern state’s government ought to immediately annex Yehudah and Shomron. We ought to officially make Areas B and C part of our nation. We ought not, collectively, to flinch at global opinion. I make these claims knowing one of my children is weeks away from army service and that another is soon to be of age.
Chanukah is a time of miracles. Chanukah is a time of faith. In partnership with The Boss, let’s move forward.