Taking the Higher Ground

The world is against us.  

One the one side are not-yet-Torah-loyal Jews in Israel. This side has a seemingly endless supply of foreign money and support of the media. They have the backing of America, Europe,  and  billionaire globalists. They are in high positions in the military and security services, and they lead the unions.  

On the other side are Torah-loyal Jews who have responsibilities to Hashem and to each Jew in Am Yisrael.  

How do you fight when the other side has all the apparent advantages?  

How do you win when the battle looks hopeless? 

We Fought Like This Before 

In the second century before the common era, the Hellenists of the Greek Empire had control over Eretz Yisrael.  

In the Jews’ efforts to recover the Land and rededicate the Beit HaMikdash, they won the battle but lost the war. The righteous Maccabees reconquered the Land for Hashem and the Jewish People. Four generations later, they lost their grip over Eretz Yisrael to the secular Hellenists.  

The situation in Eretz Yisrael today is similar. 

In the latest elections (Nov, 2022), the traditional-religious side won a decisive majority in the Knesset. Nonetheless, it lost its grip to govern due to a nation-wide rebellion by the not-yet-religious side. Just like the Maccabees, we won the battle of elections but lost the war of governance.  

How can the Torah-loyal side win when the other side has iron fortifications on every inch of high ground? 

We can win by taking the higher ground. We appeal to the Master of Legions. We petition the King Who reigns over kings. We kept doing mitzvot. And most of all, Rabbi Arush instructs us to pray every day that we all do teshuvah, especially the mitzvot between man and his fellow. 

Nazis, Soviets, Romans, Egyptians 

Jews were never stronger than the Nazis, Soviets, Romans, and Egyptians.  

They killed millions of our people. Jews who survived were segregated to the very bottom of their society and kept in ghettos throughout most of their existence.  

Despite their massive power over us, Jews are here today, and they aren’t. We live in the Promised Land while they decompose inside the history books.  

How did we beat them? What did we do? 

We served Hashem. While they grasped at the physical, we clung to the Eternal.  

No matter how bad the situation or how debilitating the pain, we kept screaming the eternal words: Hear O Israel, Hashem is our God, Hashem is One.  

This is the entire Torah.  It is the indestructible formula for our victory.  

Every day in our prayers, we shout to the heavens: Hashem reigns forever and ever, even when the nations will have perished from His earth. (Psalms 10:16). 

We declare that this world is His world. Like everything physical, it is temporary. Like eggs, this physical world has an expiration date. After 7,000 years, the world as we know it will be no more.  

Our daily prayers reinforce the truth that Hashem is eternal, but the world He creates is not.  

If we surrender only to the Eternal, then no physical force can defeat us. Our opponents will be like grass, they will blossom and grow tall, only to wither, die, and become food for the animals.   

And Today

History is God’s great testament to His greatness . . . and the key to ours.  

The Nazis were defeated. The Romans and Soviets wore themselves out. The Egyptians sinned themselves into perpetual mediocrity.  

How long does America have left?  

Their hard-line progressive president doubled the national debt, depleted the military by shipping much of its arsenal to Ukraine, stifled business by raising taxes to unsustainable levels, flooded the country with five million illegal immigrants, and prosecuted the leader of the opposition.  

Will they survive the test of time? History says – not a chance.  

America will fall. To the extent that the State of Israel is dependent on the States, it too will fall. The fate of both secular projects is written in stone.  

We pray every day: 

• We ask Hashem that we be governed by Torah law and not by secular law  
• We ask Hashem to bring us all to teshuva so that we become a united people as we were at Har Sinai 
• We ask God for His Kingship and not for democratic rule
  
• We ask God to replace the al-Aqsa mosque with the Third Temple 
• We ask our King to restore the Biblical borders of the Kingdom of Israel, and not for Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, or Kuwait  
• We ask our Father to relocate all Jews in the world to their true home in Eretz Yisrael  

This is Hashem’s will and it will happen.   

The Last Ones Standing 

When you are in a physical fight against a bigger and stronger opponent who has the fans, referee, and judges all in his corner – the only way to win is to be the last fighter standing.  

No matter the opponent, by the end of the 15th round, the one who keeps fighting will be waiting for the judges to decide the winner.  

Torah-loyal Jews will keep fighting.  

As long as we keep doing one more mitzvah in the face of shame, torture, even death, we are waging war for eternity. As long as we pray that all Jews unite as brothers in teshuvah, we are in the fight. We are fighting for the Eternal One of Israel.  

We will keep on going. We will take the higher ground, and we will pray that all Jews are the last ones standing.. 

Just one more mitzvah for He Who rules His world . . . long after the nations have perished from His earth.  

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David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, our local camel. David‘s Israeli startup, Center Stage Marketing, is a lean marketing agency for startups and small businesses that creates and promotes SEO optimized ROI-driven to the right audience on LinkedIn to make your business the star of the show.