The Jewish Art of War

The battle might be over, but the war rages on.  

Ceasefire or not, the good people of this earth are engaged in a life-or-death confrontation between civilization and savage anarchy.   

Our enemies are everywhere. They are firing missiles into the coastline of Israel, burning Synagogues in cities, and attacking the City of God.  

They are parading in every major city in the west, physically assaulting Jews everywhere,  targeting  our brothers, our children, and our daughters. 

We are all in a battle to the death against Satan’s forces of darkness. The terms progressive,  liberal, and transgender are cover. Behind the rainbow curtain lies the Devil Himself.  

Nobody can sit on the sidelines.  

This is a call to arms for anyone who wants Hashem to rule over a just and holy world. 

However, our weapons are not weapons of war: “They trust in chariots and in horses, but we mention the name of the Lord our God. They kneel and fall, but we rise and gain strength” (Psalms 20:8-9). 

From the beginning of time, to the current end, we fight with repentance, good deeds and prayer. 

The History of Jewish Warfare 

Three thousand years ago Hashem showed us His version of The Art of War. We were pitted against 135,000 Midianites, Amalekites, and Edomites. We had sinned before Him, and He put us in their hands: “And the children of Israel did that which displeased the Lord,  and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian (for) seven years”  (Judges, 6:1).  
 
After praying to G-d for mercy, He accepted our pleas: “Now it was when the children of Israel cried to the Lord concerning Midian” (Judges, 6:7). 
 

We were ready to fight with a force of 32,000 men. It was too many. We could win a military battle with these numbers and it would be considered natural.  

“And the Lord said to Gideon, ‘The people that are with you are too numerous for Me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against Me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me’” (Judges, 7:2). 

Hashem wanted us to know that we were subjugated by our enemies due to our sins. It wasn’t the Midianites. It wasn’t the Nazis. It wasn’t Hamas. It was us.  

We are the reason for our own misery.  

Hashem granted Gideon victory. Against every law of military warfare, logic, and even nature itself, Gideon and his forces won.  

It was God’s will.  

Modern Warfare Follows the Same Halacha 

Every war Israel has fought followed this rule: 

In 1948, the Arabs had the resources and the manpower. The British gave them all the strategic hilltops, along with battle–hardened generals from the British army to lead them.  

We had 600,000 people armed with shovels and rifles.  

We were also perfectly pure before Hashem. All our sins were wiped away. We had gone through 12 years of absolute Hell on earth; there was no blemish left.  

Hashem blessed us with victory over seven combined Arab forces.  

The week before the Six Day War was the greatest week since the Temple stood in Jerusalem.  

We were united. We prayed with one voice. Secular Jewish beatniks from Greenwich Village would pound on a Rabbis door in Crown Heights at 2am demanding that he pray for his brothers and sisters in Israel. Chabad emissaries stood on street corners in all major cities, offering any Jew the opportunity to pray for their brethren in Israel while putting on Tefillin. Lines extended for blocks.  

Hashem blessed our unity. Not only did we beat back the enemies poised to annihilate us, but we also won back strategic portions of our land. We took back Jerusalem and the Western Wall and the Golan Heights by defeating the combined forces of four Arab armies . . . in exactly Six Days. As the horns blew to herald the coming of Shabbat, thousands of Jews came to the Western Wall for the first time, many for the first time in their lives, for the first time back in Jewish hands in thousands of years. 

We Learn from the Past to Carve the Future 

Then we gave away the Temple Mount.  

After thousands of years of begging Hashem for the return of our City, we gave away Jerusalem for nothing. We said to God, “Thanks, but no thanks.” 

After living in exile for 2,000 years, we brazenly chose to endure more, for absolutely nothing in return.  

We haven’t won a war since.  

The war of attrition, 1969-1970, the Yom Kippur War, the Lebanon Wars, the Intifadas, the Gaza Wars, none of them were won. We pulled out of Lebanon. We pulled out of Sinai. Today, we are barely a third of the size we were when Hashem returned our Eternal City to us . . . and we gave it away.  

Even though the size of the IDF has expanded by 5,000% since the Six Day War and produced technological wonders unprecedented in the annals of man, we have seen nothing but stalemate.  
 

We have merely plugged the holes in the dam, hoping it doesn’t break.  
 

That’s because we haven’t done the one thing a Jewish Nation must do to win. 
 

This is Our Fight 

A Jewish Nation can only win with Hashem’s blessing. The one way to guarantee His support is to learn Torah, guard the Mitzvot, and pray with all our hearts.  

There is no other way. We just fought a war with the most advanced technology ever known, wiping out terrorists in the most densely packed urban area on earth with unprecedented precision, and the best-case scenario is that they won’t be able to return to war for another five years.  

Our army is doing their job. It is we that are failing them. We are failing each other.  

This is how we win: 

Guarding our Eyes and the Brit – The most powerful mitzvah of our day. Fight every demon on earth by using your body how its Creator commands. And if it’s powerful for men, modesty in dress and deed is even more powerful: the Gemara says that the Redemption will come in the merit of the righteous women who continue to keep their holy wide and long clothes despite the latest fashion! (See articles in Holiness for Men and Women.) 

Guarding our Tongues – This is the power behind unity. Learn how to not speak, or listen to, or read divisive words. Reduce hatred in the world and add love, especially for your brothers and sisters.  

Emuna (See Garden of Emuna) – The key to happiness. Every moment we trust in God, He increases  His light in our world.  

Daily Torah Learning – A regimented schedule to learn the Torah with Rashi. 

Daily Halachic Corner by Rabbi Dayan Elgrod – Daily video clips about various halachic issues. 

Daily Prayer – We have to take tangible action to increase the love between Jews and every human being. And we also must ask Hashem simply every day, preferably three times: “Master of the World! We are your children, please have mercy on us! Save and protect your righteous  Mashiach and your people! Send the full redemption with mercy and not with judgement, today! Amen.” 

We fight with God by fighting for God. We do that by combating our greatest enemy – our Evil Inclination. Once we do battle with him, God does battle with them.  

Once we make our will His will, He will make His will, our will. We nullify our desires, plans, even dreams to Him and He will nullify the plans of the Demons who stalk the earth and their Sodomite, Edomite, Ishmaelite, and Amalekite pawns.  

In the name of our fathers who all fought the Devil, and for the sake of our children, and theirs, we must all step it up.  

The nation of Israel and all mankind are counting on us.  

* * * 

David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his wife and children. Since moving to Israel in 2002, David has discovered Torah, writing hi-tech, hiking, coding ReactJS Apps, and hearing stories about the Land of Israel from anyone excited to tell them. Check him out on Highway 60 or email him your favorite Israel story at:  

david.ben.horin@spreadyourenthusiasm.com.