To Sanctify Hashem
by Rabbi Tzvi Yisrael Tau, head of Yeshivat Har HaMor in Jerusalem.
Ever since we have been a Nation, we have been engaged in difficult struggles with the nations of the world. It is important to take a deeper look at these struggles, to clarify their nature, in order to prevent our spirits from fallen, G-d forbid, when we encounter the endless persecutions of our past, and face the formidable challenges of our future. Gaining understanding and courage from the wellsprings of Torah, we will be able to wage the battle for our Nation’s survival, not only for our own benefit and welfare, but also to bring blessing to the world.
G-d’s rule over history, and His goal for mankind, unfold gradually over the chronicles of time and crystallize in the life of Am Yisrael. A heavenly “pitka,” or note, doesn’t miraculously fall down from the clouds and reveal to humanity the lofty idea of the Oneness of G-d and His moral demands. Rather, the Divine Ideal is revealed by a People here on earth, through their day-to-day doings, material and national, which they share with all other nations. The word of G-d in the world is revealed in the down-to-earth life of this unique Nation, through its majestic aspirations and holy traits. This Nation, the Nation of Israel, isn’t isolated in its mission, living only for itself and conducting international relations for its own betterment and interests, like other nations in the world. Rather, it is a Nation that stands on the center stage of human history, as “the heart of the nations,” as Rabbi Yehuda Halevi describes in his classic treatise on Jewish Faith, HaKuzari. In its essence, the Nation of Israel is universal, and through its very existence, the great truth of G-d is revealed, as King David says, “For the Kingdom is the L-rd’s, and He rules over the nations.”
This Divine Kingship doesn’t come to demean, oppress, or destroy the peoples of the world, G-d forbid, but rather to impose a cosmically harmonious, Divine Sovereignty, in keeping with man’s essential nature, to uplift human culture and bring mankind closer to its Source. The submission of the nations of the world before the Divine Light, hidden within the Nation of Israel, is, in reality, a blessing for them, and a natural, life-giving necessity, like the dependence of a tree’s branches on its roots. It is like the satellite relationship of the body’s organs to the heart, the life center of the body’s metabolism, from whence the body nurtures all of its powers and strengths. As the soul of the world, where all of Divine Faith and Morality is stored, along with the idea for a perfect human society and the exalted aspiration for the rectification of the world, “Tikun HaOlam,” in its most ideal form – Am Yisrael doesn’t come to compel and force the nations to accept something foreign and external to them. Rather, it seeks to liberate them from everything which is antithetical to the purpose of existence, and elevate them to the lofty freedom of the good life in its truest meaning, a life filled with the awareness of, and allegiance to, the One and Only G-d.
In opposition to this historic mission, and due to its great importance and existential necessity, nations rise up against us in every generation to disrupt us from reaching our goal, attempting to delay our fully developed appearance, and to extinguish the revelation of the Divine Light in our midst, which heralds G-d’s Kingship over the world.
This has been the case since the birth of our Nation. Whenever the special Divine uniqueness and “segula” of Am Yisrael starts to emerge in the world, the most formidable impurity immediately rises against it to erect a seemingly impregnable barrier of crude immorality and materialism, in order to block out the Light of G-d.
Regarding the verse, “Sichon king of the Emori, and Og king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan” (Tehillim, 135:11), HaRav Kook explains that with the appearance of the Light of Israel in the world, we must smite all the types of wicked kingdoms which stand in opposition to the Divine Light’s emergence: the unbridled, emotional valor embodied in Sichon; the physical prowess of Og king of Bashan; and the strength resulting from the collective might of many nations – the peoples of Canaan. Rav Kook concludes:
“When G-d gave the Land of Israel to the Jewish People as an inheritance, He performed miracles, overwhelming all the nations’ displays of valor… This is an eternal lesson for us that G-d’s counsel and His holy word will endure forever, and all the savage and unbridled heroism in the name of evil, all the colossal shows of physical strength, all the secret councils of many nations and kingdoms which join together against the People of G-d, just as it occurred then, will be of no avail.”
The appearance of the Divine Light in the world, which shines forth when preventative, blocking forces are overcome, is not a one-time occurrence, but rather a long ongoing historical process continuing from the Exodus from Egypt until the final Redemption. Rabbi Kook writes:
“The Redemption continues and advances. The Redemption from Egypt and the complete future Redemption are one – a non-stop continuum, the continuous work of G-d’s strong hand and outstretched arm which began in ancient Egypt and which continues to act throughout all the subsequent events and causes of history. Moshe and Eliahu, who comes to herald the Mashiach’s arrival, are the redeemers of the same Geula, one who begins and one who ends, one who starts and the other who seals the finish – together they complete the whole.”
The struggle between Israel and the nations is the struggle between good and evil, a deadly tug-of-war which is destined to reveal who rules over mankind – the nations of the world or G-d?
Today, as we are rising to renewal, in the very place where our Redemption is unfolding, here in Eretz Yisrael, the greatest concentration of impurity has gathered to interfere with, and block out, the resplendent burst of light accompanying the Israel’s cultural and spiritual revolution, which will redeem all of humanity. Our rebirth is not the revival of an individual nation wishing to improve its own situation, but rather it is a Divine undertaking, universal in scope, central to the world. Our ascent upon the stage of history comes to clarify the meaning of history, the direction of mankind, and the essence and value of all existence. Our Redemption brings a renaissance to world culture, introducing a new moral and faith-filled concept, illuminated and perfected, which will revitalize the face of history and human culture. This healing light, inherent in the blessing that Israel brings to the world, will rectify the national psyche of the nations who long for (whether consciously or not) a social awakening, rejuvenation, and inspiration to free them from their tired and despairing existence.
Here begins, with our re-establishment as a Nation, the most meaningful clarification of Kiddush Hashem, the Sanctification of G-d’s Name, in the world. And precisely because of this, all of the forces of impurity in the existence are rising against us, instinctively sensing that their defeat and total destruction is at hand. They summon their last vestiges of strength to fight against us, a fierce war of survival and existence, before they collapse and relinquish their dominance over world culture. Like with all things that change their nature, in every place where new life emerges, here too, the previous stage is struggling to save itself – and the struggle is terrifying, a battle to the end with no compromise or compassion.
For this reason, our wars are not like all the other wars in the world.
We fight one long and difficult war against war itself, against the impurity and evil which degrades mankind into wielding the sword and shedding blood. Our wars come to purify the world and to liberate it from the necessity for war which has accompanied humanity throughout history. The wars of Israel are the harbingers of the light of Mashiach himself. They bring his arrival closer, an arrival which appears with the revival of Israel as it awakens from the long and frightful slumber of Exile. These wars themselves are stages of the Redemption.
HaRav Tzvi Yehuda Kook taught:
“Every war is a phase in the Redemption of Israel. The Geula (Redemption of Israel) appears in stages, war after war, whether they were before the establishment of the State of Israel or after; whether they were before the re-conquest of Jerusalem or after. The Yom Kippur War was a special added stage, even with all its trauma and horror. The greater the undertaking, the greater the complications involved, the greater the errors and difficulties – and, arising from this – the greater the Kiddush Hashem. We are at the middle of the road, only half-way to our goal, still in the time of the atchaltah d’geula, the beginnings of Redemption. We experience great and wondrous stages, and yet we must keep in mind the teaching of the Gemara that the Redemption of Israel appears ‘kimah, kimah,’ a little at a time, in gradually developing phases. The process is orchestrated by the One who, ‘neither slumbers nor sleeps.’ The Almighty isn’t lazy, G-d forbid. On the contrary, He ‘causes salvation to flourish’ by bringing about another phase of Redemption, time after time. We must accustom ourselves to gaze upon these matters out of Emunah (faith) and complete bitachon (trust) in the certainty of Geulat Yisrael and the historical order in which it comes.”
[Excerpted from the book “Ozar Yisrael B’Givorah.” Condensed and translated by Tzvi Fishman.]
