Lashing out at the stick

Lashing out at the stick
Shaul Behr, 7 January 2007

I haven’t lived in Israel for long – not yet 5 years – but from what I am reading and sensing around me, I would venture to say that in the history of the State of Israel, public morale has never, ever been as low as it is now. I don’t need to rehash what all the talking heads are saying about lack of trust in any public institutions, from the Knesset to the judiciary, to the enforcers of the law, to the civil service – there is not a single stone in the edifice of the state that is untainted by utterly brazen filth, corruption, and incompetence, if not outright evil. We have reached such a level of despair that we have even given up on trying to change our government – because the trend is such that we would only get an even worse one in its place, if such a thing can be believed possible.

In truth, not everyone has despaired. On either fringe of the political spectrum are those who are still energized for their cause. On the Left, the Beilins and the Sarids are still deliriously hyping their hallucinatory visions of Peace In Our Time, and just as “even on the threshold of Gehinnom the wicked do not repent”, they will continue to insist, to the minute that the last Jew is C”V exterminated from the Land of Israel, that the Arabs really just want to settle down next to us with little white picket fences, if only we would stop being so horrible to them. I have no interest in these people; they are a lost cause and not worth spending any energy on.

On the other end of the spectrum is the Religious Right / “Orange” camp (of which I count myself a member). Morale-wise, we all took a big hit from the Disengagement, which led to a lot of despair. The Disengagement was a shameful display of reactiveness, naivety and messianic attachment to the “holiness” of the State, but things appear to have been turning a corner since then. Firstly, Amona demonstrated what I believe is an important point – that the instruments of the State of Israel are not by any means holy, and that some things are worth fighting for, even against the erstwhile “holy” State. Then, more recently, the ascent to Chomesh showed a tremendous sea change – instead of being reactive and just demonstrating against unjust policies, the Orange camp showed itself to be proactive, and able to set the agenda. And last week – whether or not it was a good idea, the march on Tzurif was again a proactive move, which to my mind is at least an encouraging sign. And of course, lurking in the background is the dark horse of Moshe Feiglin, who is increasingly giving Bibi Netanyahu chills in his sleep, and giving the rest of us some hope to hang on to that there might be someone capable of taking over the reins of power in a responsible, Jewish way.

All this activity is well and good – but I have this nagging sensation that something very big is missing from all this hishtadlus.

G-d.

Whoa. That’s a heavy accusation. After all, is our faith not the unifying force that motivates us and gives us our core belief systems, for which we are unquestionably so willing to be moser nefesh? No question about that. And we all know that our faith requires us to put in hishtadlus in order to achieve our righteous goals. But IMHO, the application of that required hishtadlus is being done in a way of naivety and childishly weak hashkafa.

Here’s an analogy: imagine a man play-attacking his dog with a rubber stick. He bops the animal on the head, then on the nose, taunting the dog into a frenzy. Then he lets the dog bite the stick, and the animal savages it with all its canine fury. The stick is now neutralized, and the dog proudly displays and chews on his trophy, thinking how clever and strong he is that he beat that mean old stick.

So here in the Middle East, we have, oh, about 400 million Arabs, a significant portion of whom have no greater desire than to see us all dead. Whether through grinding terrorism and despair, or in one blinding flash of atomic glory, our enemies are making absolutely no secret of their intentions for us. And what are we doing? Marching on Arab towns to try put them in their place? Calling for greater military action against Gaza? Threatening pre-emptive nuclear strikes on Iran? Guys, in the Olam Hateva, these are all the right noises to make – but we, as the people of faith, Am Yisrael – we should know better than that! Do you really think that’s what Hashem wants from us – just that we should flex our muscles a bit more against the Arabs and the Olmerts – and then He will take away all our troubles? We are just like that dog, snapping at the stick, and not getting the message that the Wielder of that stick is sending us.

We have a very good precedent for our times in Tanach: Megillas Ester. Rav Elchonon Wasserman HY”D analyzed the difference between the Jewish responses to Haman and Antiochus respectively. There are two types of troubles that come on Am Yisrael, says R’ Elchonon: “maaseh Hashem” and “maaseh Satan”. Maaseh Hashem is when the trouble comes in the form of a threat to the physical well-being of Yisrael; it is a slap on the wrist; a wake-up call from Hashem that our house is not in order, and we need to do teshuva. Maaseh Satan is when the trouble is in the form of a threat to our spiritual well-being, with oppressive decrees aimed at weakening our connection to Hashem and His Torah. For maaseh Satan, to be sure, one has to daven and do teshuva – but the ikkar avoda is mesirus nefesh, going to war, fighting and dying for the cause if need be. Thus the Chashmonaim took up arms against the evil decrees of Antiochus – but Mordechai and Ester did nothing other than proclaim three days of fasting and teshuva. There was no point organizing a military response or attempting to assassinate Haman; the decree was from Hashem, and any hishtadlus spent on trying to “lash out at the stick” would have been utterly futile and counterproductive. Only once Hashem had accepted Am Yisrael’s teshuva, made the tables turn, and the decree was effectively cancelled, did military action become an option.

Folks, I really feel that bombastic proclamations and vigilante actions, no matter how well planned and coordinated, represent nothing more than a wild outpouring of pent-up frustration and anger, and they will achieve nothing if we fail to take heed of the messages that the Creator is sending us. And those messages are clear – we hear them every day in the words of our enemies, and see them in the steady, grinding deterioration in Israel’s security. There is a gezeira out against us: ISRAEL IS GOING TO BE DESTROYED! It may be Nasrallah and Ahmadinejad whose mouths are forming the words, but that decree is coming straight from Hashem. And we are not going to avert the decree with any attempts to silence the messengers, or by loudly proclaiming our Jewish pride. Are we so small of faith, that we really believe things would change, if only we’d “let the IDF win”? Are we trying to play tricks with G-d, hoping He’ll forget about the decree if we just manage to neutralize one or two of His agents?

Guys, it’s time to set our hashkafa straight. The only chest thumping we should be doing is a giant collective viduy. The Orange camp should be teaming up with the Black camp, and screaming like Yirmiyahu in the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv: AM YISRAEL, WAKE UP! THE ENEMY IS AT THE GATE! Cry out for mercy from Hashem! Search your deeds, do teshuva, come back home!

This is the message we should be splashing in banners across the highways and in full-page spreads in the newspapers. Olmert, Peretz, Assad, Abbas, Ahmadinejad – they are all irrelevant; they are just the stick with which HKBH is hitting us. If we get our spiritual house in order, Hashem will save us with ease, as He saved us from Haman. And conversely, if Heaven forbid we carry on like we are now, flailing wildly at the “sticks”, how can we possibly expect any kind of salvation? Rest assured, until we get the message, Hashem will just keep turning the screws on us.

I believe that the time has never been more opportune for a huge, nationwide Teshuva campaign. The despair into which Israel has sunk might actually be a good thing, inasmuch as it represents a kind of foxhole, in which, as the saying goes, there are no atheists. “You’ve given up on everything else?” goes the campaign. “Turn to G-d. Strengthen your Jewishness in any way you can. Just take on one mitzvah, perfect it and make it yours, for the sake of all of Israel.”

This campaign will need organizers and infrastructure. The existing “Orange” organizations have exactly that, if only they will have the “Rosh Gadol” to recognize that salvation comes only from Hashem, and our collective fate depends entirely on our collective merit. It will take some very clever spin, but I believe the Black camp can and should also be brought onside. Any ideas as to how to do that will be much appreciated.

I think it would be most appropriate if the most likely pretender to the throne, Moshe Feiglin, would lead it himself. A real Jewish leader needs to be able to inspire his nation to teshuva. Part of their teshuva could be as simple as voting for him instead of the rest of those godless scumbags currently on display in the Knesset. If such a campaign were to take hold, we will have proven ourselves worthy of salvation. Maybe then we will be ready for a true Jewish Leadership; “Chadeish yameinu kekedem”.

I will add one little postscript, and that is to note where mesirus nefesh, is really called for. As R’ Elchonon said with reference to the Chashmonaim, they were fighting “maaseh Satan”, decrees against the Torah, not decrees against the physical bodies of the Jews. It behooves us all to put a little thought into considering exactly who is making decrees against the Torah today, and what an appropriate response might be from the People of Faith.