[Be-Ahavah U-Be-Emunah – Vayikra
5773 – translated by R. Blumberg]
Question: How do we
deal spiritually with the feeling that Jews from among our people are seeking
to expel us from the settlements in the Land of Israel?
Answer: In serious
matters, we don't operate based on feelings, but based on intellectual
clarification. Unfortunately, the issue you raise is not just a feeling. There
really has been regression here. We took a step backward at Yamit, at Gush
Katif, at Amona, at Migron, and at Hebron. Still, you must realize that over
the course of the Redemption there will sometimes also be regression.
As with
anything historical, Redemption is not mathematical. It is statistical. With statistics,
not everything is totally predictable. Statisticians say that if something is
less than 10%, it doesn't exist. Thank G-d, Judea and Samaria has 350,000
Jewish residents. 10% of that is 35,000. The statistician will say that what
happens to less than 35,000 people is insignificant.
Spiritually
as well, it is not written that there will be no problems over the course of
the Redemption. Even Moshe, who was certainly the divine emissary for the
redemption from Egypt, experienced difficulties. When he set out to redeem the
Jewish People, wicked Pharaoh refused to listen to him, and matters just
deteriorated -- until the Israelites were forced to gather their own straw. In
those moments, it was very hard for the people and for Moshe himself.
Ramban, in
his Torah commentary, explains that Moshe knew from G-d that Pharaoh would
refuse, hence it was clear that the redemption would not occur overnight, but
gradually. Now something else became clear to him, that there would probably be
regressions. And indeed, the situation deteriorated, and only later improved.
Ramban
enlists our Sages’ words about the verse, “My beloved is like a gazelle” (Shir
Hs-Shirim 2:9): “Just as a gazelle appears, goes into concealment and then
reappears, so did the first redeemer appear to the Israelites, was then concealed,
and only later reappeared” (Ramban on Shemot 5:22; Shir Ha-Shirim Rabbah 2:22).
The
gazelle runs in the mountains. Suddenly it is concealed and cannot be seen, and
then it reappears. It seems to have disappeared, but it has really advanced. It
comes into view at a more advanced point. In the same way, Moshe, the redeemer
who brought good tidings and raised hopes and faith, suddenly seemed to
disappear, and matters deteriorated, yet in the end the situation improved.
At the
start of the return to Zion, the Arabs perpetrated a terrible pogrom in Hebron. Not only did many righteous Jews die cruel
deaths, but the Jewish community was in despair. This wasn't what they had
hoped for.
Maran
Ha-Rav Avraham Yitzchak Ha-Cohain Kook wrote an article entitled, “Shuvu La-Bitzaron”
[Be strengthened once more], in which he said, "We have to strengthen our resolve.
The terrible thing that has now occurred in Hebron represents the redeemer
being concealed, but he will reveal himself once more" (Ma’amarei HaRe’iyah,
p. 360).
We mustn't
despair over what occurs. Just because there are several mishaps along the way,
must we immediately say that everything is falling apart? Rather, everything is
advancing in enormous strides, only here and there is a regression.
Had the
return to Zion been carried out by small handful of righteous men, it would not
have moved forward. Yet the return to Zion was carried out by the whole people.
As is known, some of the righteous did not even move to Israel. The return to
Zion was carried out by the Jewish People, and the Jewish people includes all
sorts of individuals, the righteous, those in between, and even those less than
that. Because the Jewish People are the ones building the Land and sacrificing
themselves in the Army, not everything is exactly like we want.
This
country has other problems. For example, there is a lot of Sabbath desecration.
But for many of us, for some reason, Sabbath desecration does not disturb our
sleep. We say, "You need patience." Most of the education in this
country is not Torah education, and that too doesn't stop many of us from
sleeping. There are also a lot of people who don't keep the family purity laws,
and for some reason that doesn't stop many of us from sleeping. But when towns
are uprooted, we suddenly say that the whole redemption has been halted, that
everything is a catastrophe, that everything is a tragedy. Where were we when they
were cutting off the side curls of the Yemenites and placing the children in
secular schools? Why didn't we say then that the redemption had ceased? Why do
only these, and not other, things bother us?
The truth
is, all of these things should bother us. Everybody should be troubled when parts
of the land of Israel are uprooted. We all have to act. But we're moving in the
right direction. We need to increase the strength and valor of the nation, and
gradually rectify all of the problems.
