Spiritual Responses to the Israel-Iran War

“Many ask whether we should be afraid of Iran. I tell you there is nothing to be afraid of. We have Hashem… An atomic bomb only falls with Hashem’s command. And if Hashem wants there not to be an atomic bomb, then there will not be one… We are in Hashem’s hands all the time.” ¹

These words were just written by one of the gedolim of our time, Rav Moshe Sternbuch. They are written for us, for you, living through this frightening new war front between Israel and Iran.

I take great comfort in the fact that today’s gedolim are not the first to speak about how to navigate our emotions at such a time. This is not the first time our nation has been conflicted between choosing bitachon and focusing on terror and threat. Rav Pincus² zt’l spoke about this exact situation not too long ago, addressing the frightened American bachurim and avreichim learning in Eretz Yisrael at the time of the Gulf War. Many of these avreichim felt nervous each time they heard the sirens, fearing the missiles could demolish their homes and destroy their families G-d forbid. One bachur confessed he felt guilty for these feelings, as a believing Jew he felt that the sirens should not trigger such anxiety. 

The words of the Brisker Rav help resolve the seeming contradiction between fear and bitachon. The Brisker Rav highlights the great contrast we witness each year on Rosh Hashanah. On the one hand, we don’t recite Hallel because “When the King is sitting on the Throne of Judgement with the Books of Life and Death open in front of Him, how can Israel recite a song?”³ Yet we do not dress in mournful colours with overgrown hair on Rosh Hashanah either. We don white garments, we shave, cut fingernails and eat a festive meal because we are sure Hashem will make a miracle for us⁴. Which approach is the correct one for Rosh Hashanah? 

The Rambam encapsulates the essence of the mood of Rosh Hashanah with his description of the day as a time of “escaping and fleeing to Him [Hashem]⁵.” As Rav Shlomo ibn Gabirol wrote in his powerful piyut, Keter Malchut⁶, “If you recall my sins, I will flee from You to You and I will be sheltered from Your wrath in Your shade.” When we are in danger, we have to run to the protective shade of Hashem. But the only motivation we have to run to our Divine shelter is the fear “I will flee from You.” When we feel the fear of a scary situation around us, this compels us to seek out the protection of Hashem. If we don’t feel that anxiety, the flash of alarm on hearing another siren, we are not motivated to escape the danger. But when we allow ourselves to panic and doubt our safety, then we open ourselves up to Hashem’s embrace, to the calming world of bitachon. Both steps are part of the process. 

For this reason, we don’t recite Hallel on Rosh Hashanah. Because it is a time of judgement and fear, we are fleeing. Yet because we sense the danger inherent in these days, then we can rejoice over our Yom Tov meal and trust in Hashem. David Hamelech wrote in Tehillim⁷ “On the day I am afraid, I put my trust in You.” Rav Pincus explains this to mean only on the day when we allow ourselves to feel afraid, can we put our trust in Hashem. 

When we feel the fear of a scary situation around us, this compels us to seek out the protection of Hashem. If we don’t feel that anxiety, the flash of alarm on hearing another siren, we are not motivated to escape the danger. But when we allow ourselves to panic and doubt our safety, then we open ourselves up to Hashem’s embrace, to the calming world of bitachon. Both steps are part of the process. 

I felt this pasuk just yesterday when I saw in the news that sadly, two people were killed by a missile strike while in the ma’amad (safe room). In my mind, I thought Eretz Yisrael can withstand anything because we have the Iron Dome and worst case scenario, if it isn’t intercepted, everyone will be in bomb shelters and safe rooms. The idea that a safe room isn’t safe for everyone scares me. And that is the moment I stopped thinking we have the answers. Hashem is our only ma’amad, our only safe room.

In the words of Rav Pincus “If a person hears an air raid siren go off and it does not jolt his heart, he has a problem. Because if he doesn’t fear, he also will not pray… If so, what will save him?”⁸ The Brisker Rav, who lived through the World Wars, told his family at times of danger “They are coming to kill us!” Would we have imagined these would be the words a gadol, a tzaddik, a ba’al bitachon would tell his family? Wouldn’t this raise their fear? Yes, and once he felt his family realised they were living through danger, the Brisker Rav was reassured that his family would pray and through that, merit salvation. We should not feel guilty for feeling fear. We should feel empowered that we have an address for our fears. 

It is no coincidence that the mission carried out by the IDF is called ‘Rising Lion.’ Bilam, who was sent to curse the Jewish people, was the one who compared us to a rising lion: “Behold a people that rises like a lion and raises itself like a lion.”⁹ Hashem placed these words into Bilam’s mouth, but it is no surprise he said them, because no-one knows the beauty and strength of our nation like our enemies do. The pasuk continues “It does not lie down until it eats its prey…” Rashi explains that the first half of the pasuk praises us for arising each morning with alacrity, launching straight into the mitzvot of tallit, kriat shema and tefillin. The second half is a metaphor for reciting kriat shema at night. The spiritual protection that this prayer achieves is so powerful it is compared to consuming our prey, our enemies. Through reciting shema, we entrust our sleepy state to Hashem and rely solely on Him to protect us through the vulnerable night hours and our enemies are thwarted. When we devote our first moments of morning to seeking mitzvot and dedicate the last minutes of our night to reciting Shema, we surround ourselves with true protection, like a fearless lion. 

“Go, my people, enter your rooms and close your doors behind you.”¹⁰ We can feel the words of the Navi deeply on two levels in our current situation. We have to physically shelter in safe rooms and bomb shelters, protecting our bodies. Yet we also have to enter the deepest of rooms, our shuls and our Batei Midrash, and sometimes, the private recesses of our heart¹¹. We have to close the doors, shut worldly matters out, even perhaps the news, and dedicate ourselves to Torah, tefilla and teshuva. Only these places, so full of kedusha and shechina, can act as our refuge in times of need. 

1. Quoted from Mrs Tamar Ansh in her Chazak email. She copied the words of Rav Sternbuch in full as transcribed by R’ Binyomin Prys 581 ↩︎
2. In his sefer, Nefesh Shimshon Gates of Emunah, Living with Faith: Bringing Hashem into our daily lives. Most sources in this article are quoted in this sefer. ↩︎
3. Gemara Rosh Hashana 32b ↩︎
4. Tur, Orach Chaim 581 ↩︎
5. Peirush HaRambam al HaMishna, Rosh Hashana 4:7 ↩︎
6. In the Machzor ↩︎
7. 56:4 ↩︎
8. Rav Pincus sefer as above, p.36 ↩︎
9. Bamidbar 23:24 ↩︎
10. Yeshayahu 26:20 ↩︎
11. Rashi, Ibid ↩︎