News

War is a special time to be in Israel. It seems in so many ways like a different universe from the way things were just a little over a week ago. I don’t need to inform my readers of the awful events that we have seen and the very real threats we still face. I live less than five miles from the largest Air Force base in the North, and the incessant sound of planes coming and going is scary (but also music to my ears, as I appreciate how much the IDF is doing to protect us). I also don’t need to make you aware of the incredible coming together that most (see below) of the country is experiencing, in contrast to the terrible hatred and arguments that were tearing us apart till so recently. The outpouring of chesed and helping and aid from all parts of the Jewish world, both within Israel and coming in from abroad, the great increase in t’filah and Torah in solidarity with the soldiers makes one proud to be part of this timeless people.

If you’ve been watching the news from Israel, you are aware of great danger facing the country. Not the enemy from without, but the enemy from within – severe discord among fellow Jews. It is threatening to tear apart the country as never before. I don’t know what Heavenly message was communicated when three sets of brothers perished one after the other, but it seems plain to me that we are being told something about not valuing our brotherhood enough. At the time of Esther’s Purim message – “Gather all the Jews together” – the opposite seems to be happening. We need to reflect deeply on this before it is too late.

Preparing this morning to go to shul for Simchas Torah in Beitar Illit, there were a few muffled explosions, but I didn’t think much of it – one often hears such noises. But then, the air raid siren went off, and I began to worry as I entered the mamad (secure room). Eventually, I decided to venture out to shul. The non-Jewish security guard said that there had been a terror incident in Beit Shemesh (information that turned out to be false). But then, in the middle of Shacharis, the siren went off again – and we all crowded into the shul bomb shelter. We ventured out, skipped hakafos, said Yizkor, and then another siren. And another. Eight sirens in all, over the next few hours. I never made it to hakafos, although things seemed to settle down towards the afternoon. Waiting to hear the news at the end of Yom Tov, my mind wandered to another Simchas Torah, 21 years ago.

The recent elections in Israel have resulted, baruch Hashem, in an overwhelming victory for the political Right. Between the Likud and the Religious parties, there is a comfortable majority of 64 out of 120 seats likely to form the next government. Now 64 out of 120 might not seem like such a landslide win. But the victory for the Right is, in fact, far greater than that.

I am aghast.

I am seething with rage at the sheer stupidity, political blindness, and tone-deafness of the United Torah Judaism party. There have been many times in the past that I would pull my hair in my frustration at decisions they have made, or not made, when the times were crying out for a forceful statement or action. But this decision today has to be, by far, the worst possible decision that could have been made and will cause incalculable harm to all religious people, let alone be counter-productive to what they are trying to achieve.

We stand before the great holiday of Shavuos – Z’man Matan Toraseinu – the day we finish preparing to receive the Torah. (The Torah was actually given on the seventh of Sivan.) The Torah is the central repository of our values, Ki heim chayeinu v’orech yameinu (It is our very life and the length of our days). While the Torah is infinite, the most significant characteristic that we use to describe it is “Toras Emes,” “the Torah of Truth.” Receiving the Torah could not come at a better time – we live in a world that seems to be dominated by sheker (falsehood). Of course, the world outside of Torah has always contained elements of sheker, but I don’t remember a time in my 60-plus years that we have been bombarded by it on such a constant basis.