In my weekly blog I usually try to connect current events with the weekly
parshah, but this week I struggled. So much has already been written about
the war in Israel. The differences between Hamas and the IDF have been
explored at length. Hamas puts children directly in harm’s way, while
Israel goes to incredible lengths to protect civilians. What more could I
add?
So I texted my friend, Fred, “Got any ideas for my blog this week?”
He shot back, “I love your blog! Reading them is the highlight of my week!
But the last few weeks you’ve been too militant.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Every week lately you’ve been writing about Hamas! First Hamas kidnapped
the teens, then you wrote about the UN, and then the need for Israel to use
more force. I love your blogs that are personal and relatable, but I find
the war blogs irrelevant to my life.”
In this week’s Torah portion the tribes of Reuven and Gad
ask Moses to grant them land outside of Israel where they will have plenty
of pasture for their flocks. Moses reacts strongly and angrily. “Will your
brothers go to war and conquer Israel while you remain here peacefully?” So
the tribes promised to leave their families and join the war, which they
did years later when Joshua conquered the land. They left everything behind
to help their brothers and sisters.
Our nation is at war. I spoke to my sister-in-law today. She wishes her
children could start sleeping properly at night without being woken by
sirens with less than a minute to get to a bomb shelter. My cousins in
Israel are all traumatized, as are their children. It is only because of
the incredible miracles we are seeing that we haven’t had thousands of
casualties.
There’s no doubt about it, Israel is under attack. Hamas hates every Jew in
the world, make no mistake about it. If they could, they would happily send
rockets flying at us as well. This war is not just Israel’s war. It is our
war.
Moses’ resounding cry should reverberate in our ears. “Shall your brethren
go to war while you stay here?!” Should our brothers and sisters in Israel
face this war alone while we sit here comfortably in our penthouses?
In fact, this week I logged onto our Belev Echad Facebook page, which we
only started a few months ago and haven’t marketed yet. I noticed that
Hamas supporters had attacked many posts with virulent anti-Semitism and
despicable words. So yes, the war is personal.
If we can’t fight physically, we can fight spiritually. The very minimum we
can do is some extra mitzvot for our soldiers. Put on tefillin for Israel.
Put up a mezuzah. Choose to eat a kosher meal. Give extra charity. In fact, we’ve set
up a website where you can donate to send care packages to IDF soldiers in
Gaza to help lift their spirits. Do a mitzvah for Israel right now!
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Uriel Vigler leads the Chabad Israel Center on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The Center
sponsors Belev Echad, a program that brings wounded IDF soldiers to New York, for a 10-day reprieve.
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