ByRABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ

The twelve days of battle that Israel went through are a terrible tragedy.  First and foremost, it is a tragedy of unnecessary death.  “Beloved is man, for he was created in the image [of G-d]” said our sages.  And every person who dies is a loss of one of G-d’s revelations in the world.  But the personal tragedies of the dead and wounded in the battle are just part of the greater tragedy – that of the despicable, false and dangerous term called “religious war.”

As someone privileged to serve at the most sacred site for the Jewish nation and the most sensitive one in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I cry out today: There is not, there cannot be, a religious war.  There is not, there cannot be, a war desired by our Father in Heaven. Throughout history, people tried to camouflage their lust and pride under the lofty cover of “holy war.” But we, people of faith, know full well that faith means humility, faith means love of our fellow human as a person who was created by that same will that created me.
We, people of faith, know that the land belongs neither to us nor to our enemies, but to He Who created it.  We, people of faith, know that the Temple Mount is not, and cannot be, owned by any human being.  We all need to bow our heads when coming to the Mount and to the Western Wall at its feet, with the humility appropriate for standing before the Master of the Universe.

How awful to hear people who call themselves “men of religion” incite hatred, violence, killing and destruction – all in the name of the Good Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth.  How tragic to see people kill and be killed, injure and be injured; losing security, property, good neighborly and work relationships – and all this, supposedly, in the name of their Father in Heaven.

We, the rabbis, kadis, priests, and all people of religion are called upon during these bitter times to stand together and call out in one voice – this is not the way of faith; this is not the way of the Lord.  Whatever disputes between religions exist, they will never undermine the fundamental truth that the world was created for good, and the humans within it were created for good.

This is the will of the Lord, this is our mission on earth, this is the mission of Jerusalem, the City of Peace, about which King David, its founder, prayed: “May there be peace in your wall, tranquility in your palaces.”