Real Peace for Israel

The other day, a candidate for the Israeli Knesset made a post on LinkedIn. He talked to a group of frustrated Israelis who are considering leaving, Hashem forbid.  Their primary reason to leave Eretz Yisrael was the disunity and hatred among all of us. When he asked them if they would stay if this problem was solved, they said “Yes!” 

These conversations set the standard for the peace we need to survive for. This peace has nothing to do with Palestinians, Iranians, or the United Nations.  

Real peace for the Jewish People has three elements: 

Peace with God 

Any Israeli leader who is trying to build bridges among the diverse communities needs to be very strong. Simply asking everyone to give each other a hug won’t work. He must be bold enough to tell us the truth: 

We are the nation of Israel, living in the Land of Israel, whose mission is to serve the God of Israel by following His commandments in the Torah of Israel.  

We cannot have peace with our enemies until we have peace with Hashem. We cannot have peace with each other until we have peace with God. 
 
For example, a group of people assaulted Jews who were publicly praying in Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur. The assailants cannot have peace with those praying on Yom Kippur until the assailants start to pray on Yom Kippur.  
 
This is a hard truth that most don’t want to hear, but everybody must accept.  
 
The good news is that anyone can have peace with Hashem through Torah commandments well within the average comfort zone:  

• Learning and growing emunah in Hashem
• Guarding one’s tongue against gossip and hate 
• Family purity  
• Charity 
• Acts of kindness 

When we all have peace with God by making our will His will, God will make His will our will and enforce peace between us and the nations.  

Peace with Each Other 

There cannot be peace among us if all we do is pat ourselves on the back and convince our little group that we are all right.  
 
A powerful leader who wishes to unify us must demand that all of us humble down and see the good in one another. He will permit Haredim to remain exempt from the army to study Torah if they learn at least twice a month with an army unit. 

They will wrap tefillin around every Jew in the unit and eat a meal with them while teaching the blessings before and after eating. They will get to know them so closely that when they return to Yeshiva and Kollel, they will serve Hashem with ten times more energy to earn merit from Hashem that their brothers in arms will return from the front, safe and sound.  
 
A strong leader will turn to the rest of Israel and declare the most inconvenient truth to Israel: 

Hamas’ bombs aren’t landing in Bnei Brak. They don’t touch Beitar Illit. They aren’t anywhere near Jerusalem, Judea, and Shomron. He will educate the Jewish People by informing them of the facts: Those communities that have greater peace with God through His mitzvot have been spared most of the assault by our enemies. 

He will have the courage to advise every Jew on how to stay safe by declaring the greatest protection from our enemies is to perform the mitzvot. The best way to protect Jewish men, women, and children is to seek Hashem’s protection – and the last year has been very clear proof of this.  

Anybody who makes a single act of repentance from this takes the 1,200 murdered on Simchat Torah and turns them into catalysts for teshuva – the greatest mitzvah! 

Here is the greatest ever reason to unify behind God – for the benefit in the Next World of the souls of our brothers and sisters tortured in this world.  

Peace with the Land of Israel 

A true leader demands that we understand how every square centimeter of the Land is holy. 

Anyone developing it, whether through a high-tech startup that employs ten people, a hilltop manned by three families, or farmers growing produce, is performing acts of holiness before God and the Jewish People.  

All of us are doing this – we just must acknowledge it to one another.  

Anyone reciting the blessing over bread – haMotzei lehem min Ha’aretz – blessed is He Who brings forth the bread of the Land of Israel — is performing a mitzvah that the Rambam equates to all mitzvot. He is taking the grain of the land, grown in the soil of the land, and consuming it – turning the grain into blood – making the Land flow through his or her veins.  

How do we achieve peace right now? We love Hashem by loving our fellow Jew and loving the Land.  

The right leader will be strong enough to tell us countless stories of miracles and acts of heroism, and still remind us that unless we achieve this level of peace – we risk losing everything our martyrs died for, and our soldiers are fighting for.  

He will emerge and, through brute strength, force us into peace with God, each other, and the Land of Israel.  

Bezrat Hashem (with Hashem’s help), this leader will be Ben David, our king.  

If we still must wait a little longer, I’ll take anyone up to the task.  

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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.