The Mission of Every Jew

It was like water to a thirsty man.  

She called me in the middle of the day. We talked about the company. We talked about the job. I told her my qualifications. She ended the call, telling me that she would set up a meeting with the head of the department, and I would speak for a formal interview on Monday.  

An hour later, I checked the email for the details. Nothing.  

Three hours passed. Nothing.  

Three more hours, and I check my LinkedIn account. The person I was supposed to meet with checked out my LinkedIn profile, but there was no invite to interview.  

Another rejection.  

Five Ways in the Wrong Direction 

I was upset. Looking at the profile picture of the person who told the human resources lady not to bother, I wanted to think about everything that could happen to her if she wasn’t careful.  

Then I remembered Hashem’s commandment not to hate a fellow Jew in your heart. I wanted to scream to my wife about what “they” did to us. That would be loshon hara.  

The truth is that nobody did anything wrong. Someone saw my profile and decided not to waste my time on an interview that would produce nothing. 

If I had spoken loshon hara to my wife, my sin of speaking would be compounded with her sin of listening to it. It would be a betrayal – a wife loyally listens to her husband, and my reward is a sin.  

I wanted to be angry at the people who made this decision. Chalk up another two sins. One sin is relying on this business to provide my livelihood, and another is not relying on Hashem to provide it.  

Before the fire went out of my mouth, I took a drink of water. With God’s help, I repelled a five-pronged attack from Satan. 

This is how we will win against our enemies.  

Winning the War One Battle at a Time 

Since October 7, there hasn’t been any one specific event that turned the tide of the war. There has been no single hero who saved us. Thousands of acts performed by hundreds of thousands of soldiers have moved us, inch by inch, to victory.  

The media war is the same. Many of our brothers and sisters are making our case on social media, cable tv, and now the hearings broadcast before the International Court of Justice. Thousands of people read their posts, like their videos, and share their content. 

The war we are fighting is to the death – but it has no knockout punch. It won’t be won with a single blow. It will be countless small acts of bravery, courage, and determination by the millions of Jews in God’s earth that will defeat the forces of evil. Every day, we all face small battles on our chosen front.  

We are all called to duty.  

How Every Jew Is a Warrior 

What’s the mission for every Jew?  

On October 8, we caught lightning in a bottle. For the first time since June 4, 1967, we became a completely united nation. The arguments stopped. The fighting stopped. Looking at each other with anger, hatred, and even contempt stopped.  

One of the absolute worst moments in the history of Israel was followed by what has the potential to be one of the finest. 

It’s up to all of us to keep this alive.  

By learning the laws of Shmirat HaLoshon, we learn not to say things that could revive feelings of hatred toward each other and let the lightning escape. We overturn the sin of the spies that caused us forty years of exile. We overturn the sin of the destruction of our Second Temple that caused us almost 2,000 years of exile.  

Hashem blesses us to an even greater degree, even if all of us haven’t yet taken on all the mitzvot. Our holy Sages lament that Mashiach hasn’t come because a million children go to bed without saying Shema Yisrael.  

What if those million and another 13 million went to bed guarding the mitzvah of Shmirat HaLoshon, which, as the Chofetz Chaim says, includes thirty-one additional mitzvot? 

Would that be enough to bring the Final Redemption? 

There will be no epic confrontation with Gog and Magog. It will all be small skirmishes. Every spiritual battle we triumph brings Hashem’s blessings to every soldier, and God’s victory for His children.  

Their bullets are anger, temptation, doubt, and despair. We will dodge enemy fire with emunah and Shmirat HaLoshon and Hashem will push them away step by small step. 

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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, 300 Marketing Solutions, 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.