Fighting Madness with Mitzvot
Politics relies on compromise. But what happens when you deal with people who refuse to trade their faith for any price? David Ben Horin breaks down why secular solutions fail in the Middle East and shares the spiritual path to true victory.
Practical people make practical choices. Compromise leads to peace. But the truth is . . . in King David’s Region . . . it doesn’t.
NOTE: The term “Middle East” was coined in 1902 from the perspective of London, or the British Empire, being the center of the world. From now on, I will use the term “King David’s Region” to describe the region where we live.
Imagine Donald Trump speaking to his daughter, Ivanka. It’s Shabbat, and he asks her to turn on the light.
“Sorry Dad, it’s Shabbat.”
Irritated, the President makes his offer: “I’ll give you a million dollars if you turn on this light right now.”
She laughs.
“Okay, five million.”
She goes back to reading Psalms.
“How about this. For the next 6 hours, you are the President. For every executive decision I have to make, I’ll do exactly as you say. Just turn on the light.”
She ignores him.
How God-Fearing People Think
If someone close to us were the President, Prime Minister, or had the financial resources as Elon Musk, it wouldn’t make any difference what he offered for us to turn on the light.
We wouldn’t sin for money. We wouldn’t benefit from going against God.
For the record, I never heard of President Trump doing this. In fact, I have heard stories of how he acted as a Shabbos Goy to help his children!
But it’s a lesson about conducting policy with God-fearing people: There are things in life we don’t compromise on.
- We don’t eat traif (unkosher) food, even at a high-stakes networking event.
- We don’t commit adultery, even with the most powerful and physically beautiful woman on earth, like Pharaoh’s wife.
- We don’t sacrifice the Land of Israel. Every Jew, from every corner of the world, loves Israel AT LEAST as much as he loves where he is right now. . . so much more for people living here.
It’s encoded in our Jewish DNA that we don’t sin against Hashem. We don’t accept payment to go against our Maker.
Politics is based on compromise. The guy on the right will cede a few demands to the one on the left, who will also cede demands to make a deal everyone can live with.
We don’t do that.
We never compromise Hashem’s commandments for anything, no matter how “reasonable” or “logical” the offer.
This is why peace is elusive in King David’s Region.
We Are Not Alone
The Palestinians feel the same way. So do the Iranians.
Despite being offered Land since 1937, Palestinians feel that allowing Jews to have dominion over the Land of Israel is a sin against God. This is why they don’t compromise.
Iran sees any capitulation to the Great Satan as blasphemy. This is why Iran won’t make a deal.
Despite logic, national benefit, and diplomacy, they see any compromise as going against the will of God, and they won’t do it.
The secular world sees conflicts through secular eyes. They see secular solutions, “reasonable” concessions, and “logical” compromises.
They don’t understand that if there is one thing that unites Israeli Jews, Arab Palestinians, and Iranian generals, it’s this: Making a compromise is rebelling against God.
This is why there will NEVER be peace in King David’s Region. There will be victory. There will be defeat. There will be calm, but never agreed peace.
If one side loses, it’s for the sake of God. It’s God’s will. It’s giving everything of yourself to God, and that is a victory. To compromise is to save one’s skin at the cost of Hashem’s honor.
We don’t do that here.
The Only Solution
The only solution is more mitzvot.
More acts of kindness.
More Torah learning.
More improvement of our personal character.
More light. More merit. More prayers to Hashem that He grant us victory over our enemies.
We ask Him in the Shemonei Esrei to rebuild Jerusalem. That means to replace what is there with our Holy Temple. We ask Him to restore King David’s kingdom. That means to replace the current system with a rule of Torah law, governed by a Haredi Monarchy, and led by people loyal to Hashem in everything they do. This Torah Kingdom will stretch from the river to the sea – the Euphrates to the Mediterranean.1
At the end of the prayer, we say “As for all those who plot evil against me, speedily nullify their scheme and disrupt their plot.” We ask Hashem, three times a day, to prevent the Iranians, Palestinians, and Edomites from taking our land, defeating us in battle, and wiping us out.
We pray for victory. The only way to end the conflict in King David’s Region.
So do they.
When one side definitively wins, and the other side loses, there can be peace.
We shudder when we read the curses in Parsha Ki Tavo2. But it doesn’t start there. It starts with Hashem blessings. The first blessing He promises us is that we will be a HEAD to the nations.
If we serve Him, He guarantees us complete victory over all of our enemies.
With every mitzvah, we inch closer to transforming King David’s Region into Land his son is ready to rule.
Why would we ever compromise on this?
Editor’s Notes
1 There are multiple references: Shemot (Exodus) 23:31; Devarim (Deuteronomy) 11:24; Yehoshua (Joshua) 1:4; Tehillim (Psalms) 72:8
2 Devarim (Deuteronomy) 27:15–26, 28:15–68
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David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, 60,000 passionate Israelis, and Matilda, our local camel.
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