Israel at War: What Is the Appropriate Jewish Response?

The response when we don’t know how to respond.

Although I’m trying to write an article, my thoughts are too unprocessed, my emotions too raw and my heart too pained to articulate all that I feel or to fully express what is inside. As a nation, we are shocked and grieving, completely shaken up, vulnerable and exposed. There is terror and fear, doubts and confusion, sadness and pain.

I write this from Melbourne, Australia – a community that perhaps couldn’t be any further from Eretz Yisrael. But despite the miles and oceans placing physical distance between me and Eretz Yisrael, my heart couldn’t be closer. Our community, together with all the communities across the globe, have been thrust into a deep mourning. 

I don’t feel able to sleep peacefully, my thoughts keep me up at night. Every conversation between two Jews starts with “Are you ok?” and every message begins “I hope you and your family are safe.” Things feel different.

Yet, at the same time, as the horror spreads, there is an incredible beauty born. The tightest hug wraps itself around me, around us. I see gatherings at shuls, schools, seminaries and yeshivot, heartfelt tehillim (Psalms) recited completely as one. I see clips of Jews singing Hatikva, Am Yisrael Chai and Acheinu all over the world. I see learning groups forming, donations flooding in and practical assistance mobilizing. We saw hate, indescribably vicious hate. And we also see love. Indescribably deep levels of love. 

The first step is to acknowledge the pain. The Torah does not hide pain from us. In fact, the Midrash¹ tells us that the second verse of the Torah is an allusion to the four exiles which the Jewish people will experience. 

וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם – The earth was empty and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep². 

‘Emptiness’ is a reference to the Babylonian exile, ‘void’ symbolizes the Persian exile, ‘darkness’ represents the Greek exile and ‘the deep’ encompasses our current exile; that of Edom. Indeed, we currently feel plunged into the difficult depths of exile. 

The first step is to acknowledge the pain. The Torah does not hide pain from us. In fact, the Midrash tells us that the second verse of the Torah is an allusion to the four exiles which the Jewish people will experience. 

This verse teaches us that our national suffering is embedded into the very fabric of Creation. Just as the sun, skies and seas were formed by Hashem, so were the struggles of our people in exile. Whilst we have no answers, we know one thing which the news will never tell us:  this was orchestrated by Hashem. This was written into the Divine blueprint of the world before its existence. This is part of the Master Plan.

This is a truth which was revealed to Avraham at the Brit Bein HaBetarim (the covenant between the parts). 

‘The sun was about to set and a deep sleep fell upon Avram and behold a dread, a great darkness was falling upon him. 

He said to Avram “You must know that your children will be foreigners in a land which is not their own and they will enslave them and afflict them…’³

The Pirkei DRabbi Eliezer⁴ tells us that each of the four words describing the deep sleep of Avraham alluded to his descendants’ future subjugation to four painful kingdoms of exile. How can Avraham have slept through this? 

He was not asleep. He simply could not sit up when he heard what his children were destined to go through.

As we sing each year on Seder night, the somewhat haunting words of our destiny: ‘And this is what has stood for our ancestors and for us, that it was not one alone who stood up against us to destroy us, but in every generation they stand up to eliminate us, and Hashem rescues us from their hands.’ 

Hashem allowed us to be dragged down to Babylon, leaving beautiful Yerushalayim as chained captives. Hashem tested us in Persia with the horrific decree looming over us, a signed and sealed decree to exterminate every Jew. Hashem subjected us to the impurity of the Greeks, a nation who defiled the Jewish women and tainted the holy Mikdash. That same Hashem decreed this too. 

This is the second step. To know that this came from Hashem. 

Even the Heavenly angels cannot truly grasp this. When the asara harugei malchut (the Ten Martyrs), spiritual giants, died in horrible ways, the angels came to Hashem and exclaimed “is this the reward for Torah?”⁵ How could such pure tzaddikim be subject to such suffering? Hashem silenced them and explained that unless He reverted the world back to its state pre-existence, they would not understand. He would have to go through every piece of world history before they could make sense of it. We thus remind ourselves that this jigsaw piece – an extremely painful jigsaw piece – is part of a Divine puzzle which can only be created and understood by Hashem. 

We have just left our Sukkot, our havens of safety, our Divine cocoons. And now we feel vulnerable to the elements, alone and bare, stripped of our special G-dly protection. But we daven each night,  “spread over us the sukka of Your peace.” We want the sukka back. We want the special protection back. We want the Shechina to keep us safe. 

This is the third step. We must take action. We may not be fighting on the front lines physically, but all of us are stationed on the spiritual battlefield. All of us can do something to illuminate this dark time, to show our unwavering commitment to Hashem and His people, to merit the Divine protection we desperately crave and need. 

The Hebrew word for missiles is tilim. Our holy prayers, our tehillim, can completely nullify their tilim, their attacks. The Gemara⁶ tells us that prayer is one of the things which we treat lightly but stands at the pinnacle of the world. Our prayers are nuclear. Our prayers are our protective Iron Dome. Our true Swords of Iron. Not a word of prayer is missed by Hashem, He gathers up each precious word, every shed tear. Now is the time to add in an extra prayer. To join any group which gathers to daven together. To pray that one bit slower, slightly more focused, eyes closed, heartfelt. To really beg for Heavenly mercy.

We must also strengthen our Torah learning. The Gemara tells us that learning Torah saves lives. In fact, it is greater⁷. Throughout the trials and tribulations of our history, it has always been our Torah study which protected us. There is a beautiful song in which we sing about the melachim (angels) sent by Hashem to guard us: ‘On my right, Michael, on my left, Gavriel, in front of me, Uriel, behind me, Refael, upon my head, the Shechina of Hashem.’ Incredibly the first letter of each of the melachim’s names can be moved around to spell the word- Gemara. We merit the protection of the melachim through our Torah learning. 

The pasuk⁸ paints for us an ideal image “Hashem walks in the midst of your camp, to save you and to deliver your enemies into your hand.” Nothing could be more desirable to us than Hashem’s salvation. A final way we can achieve this can be found at the end of the pasuk⁹: “Your camp shall be holy.” Creating kedusha in the privacy of our own homes, can bring Hashem’s presence down into the Jewish camp and lead our soldiers to success. The more Hashem finds kedusha in a place, the more He desires to dwell there. In private, we can strive to be one inch more careful with our tzniut; with our clothing, with our hair covering. Rabbi Falk¹⁰ zt’l wrote that the same way tefillin shel rosh generate abundant kedusha for a man, the same is achieved when a woman covers her hair and it thus creates great protection. We could learn one extra halacha over Shabbat, to ensure we carefully guard its sanctity. As we sing in the zemirot¹¹ of Shabbat, ‘When I guard the Shabbat, Hashem guards me.’

May we merit the love, favor and protection of Hashem, to heal the injured, comfort the mourners and return the captives. May all of us be blessed with safety and peace and ultimately, may we see the final geula very soon.

¹ Bereishit Rabba 2:4

² Bereishit 1:2

³ ibid , 15:12-13

⁴ 28:9

⁵ Aileh ezkarah, part of Yom Kippur Mussaf

⁶ Brachot 6b

⁷ Megilla 16b

⁸ Deut 23:15

⁹ Ibid

¹⁰ In his sefer, Oz Vehadar Levusha

¹¹ Ki Ishmera Shabbat