Tale of Two Soldiers

Before we teach our children about Israel, we need to teach ourselves about Israel. First of all, what is Israel? Is it a country, is it a refuge for the Jews? Is it a place that we conquered? The truth is that if we look into the Torah, the very first Chapter, the very first sentence the very first verse states “In the beginning of God’s creating of the heavens and the earth.” It seems out of place, who cares, isn’t the Torah a book of laws, do this do that, eat this, avoid that?

Rabbi Yitzhak explains that one day the nations of the world will say to Israel, “You are bandits! You conquered the lands of seven nations who inhabited the Land of Canaan (The name of Israel before we were given it.) So Hashem, in the very first line of the Torah makes it clear: “The whole earth belongs to the Holy One, He created it, by his decision He gave it to the other nations in the beginning… And by his wish he took it from them and gave it to us.”

The Land of Israel is therefore an inheritance from the Almighty and not a place that we happened to have conquered. Hashem himself orchestrated world events for us to dwell there. He is now doing the same. On the same token, just as He decided to give it to us, He decided to take it away temporarily with the destruction and exile of our ancestors during the times of the Holy Temple.  It wasn’t originally intended to be that way. Hashem led us to the Land of Israel after leaving Mt. Sinai with the Holy Torah. Our Mission as part of the inheritance to the Holy Land was to keep the Torah’s laws and eradicate the influences of idolatry in the land from foreign nations; in short, to serve Him here, on this Holy Land.

Things were going great, we were keeping the laws of agriculture by resting the land every seventh year, we were bringing the special offerings every year on Sukkoth for the entire world, Kings from around the world would come to visit King Solomon, King David’s son to get his advice. The world was at peace, because we were in line with the deal of the inheritance.

But then as time went on, we had already been some few hundred years in the land and something quite common occurred. We got bored! All of a sudden new waves of culture influenced our people. People left Judaism despite having the Holy Temple and the High Priest and the Divine Presence over Jerusalem. They didn’t value what they had and took it for granted by giving in to temptation of what their eyes saw in the other nations of the world and adopting their priorities over Judaism.

Jews struggle with this every day. How do I keep a smile on my face while I do the mitzvot? I see the whole world having a ball! And not only do I have the challenge of truly being happy with observing the Torah in its entirety without the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, I face antisemitism, and I see the news, and I hear about the UN, and I hear about the Hamas, and the Hezbollah, and the stabbings, and then what’s more…. I have to teach my child to be a loyal Jew in the Land of Israel?  Mission: Quite Impossible….

With emuna, we know that our mission  is simply to serve the King. The more the emuna, the more our willingness. We don’t want exemptions, we want to serve!

There’s a story about two of the IDF’s finest soldiers, which I heard from Rabbi Lazer Brody: 

They get a call from central command.

 

“We know where the head terrorist is hiding in Lebanon, we need to attack him now… But he’s deep behind enemy lines…”

 

The soldiers have been learning about Arab culture and language for years now and have been preparing specifically for a mission like this. They get rushed to the north of Israel and are briefed. They both meet with the highest ranking army intelligence officer. It is  8 hours till they will embark.  Their gear is ready and they are waiting for the green light in order to depart.

 

Suddenly two hours before the mission, the Chief Officer comes in to tell them that the mission has been canceled due to international pressure from the United Nations.

 

The door closes and the first soldier says, “Phew, Thank G-d that mission is called off; it sounded like a sure death sentence.” 

 

The second soldier just sat on his bed with his hands together and a small tear streamed from his eye. “All my life I dreamed about doing nothing other than defending my country. I’ve trained year after year for the opportunity to do just this type of mission and now it’s gone.”

This is an adage about our souls. Each one of us came down to this world to perform a mission that only our soul can do. But as we enter the New Year, we have to ask “What should I be doing to fulfill my purpose!?”  We are all promised Olam HaBa, the World to Come, as it says in Ethics of Our Fathers at the end of every chapter. But spiritually, when we get to the next world and we receive the abundant spiritual light, the greatest pleasure in the world, of being completely part of Hashem, knowing without any question the truth of God Almighty, our souls feel completely ashamed and embarrassed because we didn’t earn it. We realize that we didn’t do what we were supposed to do down here and didn’t accomplish nearly as much as what we should have in the realms of Torah observance and being a true light unto the nations.

We have to take this message with us and strengthen ourselves in Emuna. We need to believe with full force that we can succeed and live a life filled with Emuna. With dedication we can truly exemplify what it means to live within the teachings of Rav Shalom Arush. But we have to choose which soldier we want to be. The one who fears the challenge or the one who yearns to reveal his trust in God and help the world. May we merit to pass on these teachings to our spouses, children and communities and have peace for Jerusalem and the world, amen!