“Arise, O Lord…”
By HaRav Dov Begon, Head of Yeshivat Machon Meir.
Regarding the war against Midian, it is written: “Moses spoke to the people, saying, ‘Arm men from among you for the army, that they may go against Midian to execute the vengeance of the Lord against Midian’” (Numbers 31:3). Rashi explains: “The vengeance of the Lord” – for whoever rises against Israel is considered as though he rises against the Holy One, blessed be He. Therefore, the verse does not say “the vengeance of Israel” (see Siftei Chachamim ad loc.).
Likewise, in Parashat Beha’alotcha it says: “Whenever the Ark set out, Moses would say: ‘Arise, O Lord, and let Your enemies be scattered; let those who hate You flee before You’” (Numbers 10:35). Rashi explains: “Those who hate You”- these are those who hate Israel, for whoever hates Israel hates the One who spoke and brought the world into being, as it is said: “Your enemies have raised their heads against Your people; they conspire together against those You cherish” (Psalms 83).
Moses our teacher and the People of Israel understood that those who come to wage war against Israel are waging war against the Holy One, blessed be He, because the Name of the Lord is called upon us. As King David said to Goliath the Philistine before he killed him: “You come against me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the Name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied” (Samuel 1, 17:45).
Also today, in Israel’s wars, from the War of Independence through all the wars that have been fought, including the present war, Israel’s enemies who fight against us may come in the name of ‘Allah,’ but in truth they are fighting against the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who is Master of the World. As King David, peace be upon him, said: “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers conspire together against the Lord and against His anointed” (Psalms 2:1).
At such a time, we must unite immediately, as one man with one heart, in order to achieve a decisive victory over our enemies, so that the Divine promise will be fulfilled: “You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall shatter them like a potter’s vessel” (ibid. 2:9). Through this, the Name of the Lord will be sanctified in the world, and all the inhabitants of the earth will recognize and know that the Lord, the God of Israel, is King, and that His sovereignty rules over all.
