[Be-Ahavah
U-Be-Emunah – Balak 5772 – translated by R. Blumberg]
How fortunate we are to have
risen to rebirth and to have an army! In the past we were in the exile, a
single lamb amongst seventy wolves, with the nations relentlessly attacking us.
Now, thank G-d, we can defend ourselves.
Thank G-d, we’ve got an army.
It is forbidden for us to hurt
that army. Quite the contrary, we have to strengthen it every way possible. We
have to exemplify self-sacrifice. This includes self-sacrifice in the army
itself. The army is built on that trait. Soldiers sacrifice their lives. There
is also the self-sacrifice involved in going to the army – something that isn’t
easy for everyone, both because of the physical effort required, and because
the army doesn’t always operate in accordance with the thoughts and opinions of
every individual (it being the army of the entire Nation). In our Nation, there
are things that don’t always operate as each person might wish. Yet that is no
reason to boycott it. If the army does not behave the way I want as far as
expulsion from Jewish towns, or as far as women singing, that’s no reason to be
angry at it, for the result of that will be our Nation’s destruction.
We mustn’t forget that
surrounding us are three hundred million Arabs who want to annihilate us, and
they have another one or two billion helpers. It’s a matter of life and death.
Even in our midst, some of the Arabs are our enemies. We mustn’t forget that
the Tzahal constitutions the Nation’s salvation.
It also constitutes the salvation
of the Land: the return to Zion, the rebuilding of the Land, the establishment
of the State, and the Nation’s rebirth in its Land.
Tzahal also constitutes salvation
through the Nation’s sanctifying G-d’s Name.
When we are smitten by the
nations it is a profanation of G-d’s Name, and when we are strong it is a
sanctification of G-d’s Name.
Therefore, we’ve got to leave the
army out of the arguments within the Nation. The army is a place where we unite
for the sake of saving the Nation and the Land, and for the sake of sanctifying
G-d’s Name. Within the Nation there are arguments, and as far as that too we
have to be brave and increase our love and brotherhood, peace and friendship.
Yet the army must remain outside of the controversies.
In the army we must remain
totally united. We mustn’t use it as a punching bag to advance our own agendas
and our own cultural and nationalist ideals. Our lives are in danger, and when
a person’s life is in danger, it’s not the time to check how religious his
physician is.
We should just be happy that he
rescues us.
Of course, we can try to improve
the army’s spiritual level. Everyone should try to make the army suit his own
outlook. That’s natural. Yet it should all be done out of love and brotherhood,
peace and friendship, and not with threats, saying, “Either the army is my cup of
tea or I’m boycotting it!”
Rather, first and foremost,
everyone should enlist in the army – religious, secular, Charedim, Ashkenazim,
Sephardim, Ethiopians, Yemenites, right-wingers and left-wingers. Everyone should
go. Afterwards, if problems arise, we’ll solve them: with love and brotherhood,
peace and friendship.
