The way of Aaron, distorted...but we have to understand

A number of years ago, before he made Aliya, Rav Chaim Wasserman made one of his frequent visits to Israel; as usual he spoke about it in the Young Israel of Passaic-Clifton, NJ when he returned. One of the things he spoke about was how war-weary many Israelis are; and our need to understand that before we criticize. Many Israelis have lived here there entire lives; there are still plenty who are older than the State itself. During the past 58 years, they have sent many loved ones to war; spouses, children, parents. Many never came back; others came back missing arms or legs or with other lifelong injuries.

Is it any wonder so many of them don't want to see it happen any more? Don't want any more Korbanot? And is it any wonder that it makes them so desperate for peace that they will grasp at any straw, make any compromise, in order to get it?

It made sense to me at the time; I believe I was able to understand those feelings. Now that I have children in the IDF, and one has been in combat while the other's commander was killed at a checkpoint, I can feel it on a deeper level. I would do anything within reason to protect my boys; I worry both for their own safety, and, as I have already pointed out, for the possibility that they would have to kill others.

The key is "within reason." If we let our desperation and despair make the decisions, we will end up signing our own death warrants for a few short moments of illusory peace. This is true of the leftists who would have us go back to the 1948 partition lines, and also of the frum people I mentioned who want to make a hudna with Hamas.

Deep in the heart of every Jew runs the desire for peace. We are all striving to follow Hillel's advice (Avot 1:12) to be talmidim of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace. But here the anguish of suffering has distorted it to an unhealthy willingness to give away the baby with the bathwater.

But we MUST understand, not hate. Too many frum people simply choose the path of hate. They call such people eirev rav or worse; they call for Chanuka-style civil war (sometimes only metaphorically but sometimes far too literally.) I have heard someone who agonized about the missiles falling in the North during the war say, at the same time, that if they have to fall they should at least only fall on the houses of those who voted for Kadima!

Because we know where the blame is. None of this would be happening if WE, the frum world, were doing what we should to perfect the world in the Kingdom of the Almighty. If we stop the hate and bring on "love your neighbor as yourself," if we champion the downtrodden and emphasize the Mitzvot between man and his fellow, we can bring about the true peace of Aaron and bring the true world of peace and Mashiach for all Jews and the entire world.

Making "deals" with terrorists?

I was upset but not at all surprised, shortly before the war, when I heard that people from the newspaper HaAretz had been in contact with Hamas, which offered a 50-year hudna (mistranslated as "cease-fire" but more appropriately rendered as "hoodwink") in exchange for Israeli withdrawl to the 1947 U.N. Partition lines. The paper was in favor of the proposal! (I did not see this in print, I was told by friends. Unfortunately, I could not find any articles about it on their English site.)

But I was much more upset, a few weeks ago, when I learned that some Rabbis, both Haredi and non-Haredi, ALSO want to talk hudna!

And the reason?

"The Islamic world has deep concerns about the penetration of liberal, secular values and lifestyles into the Middle East. A major factor in the conflict between radical Islam and the Western world is Islam's opposition to secular lifestyle and ideology.

"The haredi community understands their sensitivities and mentality and feels threatened by the same phenomena. The haredi community could play a key role in dialogue between the West and Islam because we live in two worlds, one deeply religious and the other liberal and pluralistic. We understand that the secular mind is different from the religious mind."

We frummies are just like the Islamic terrorists, so we can communicate! That's what it says.

The sad truth is that in some cases it is true. Fanaticism in the Hareidi AND the religous Zionist world is increasing; one recent example is the calls from a small (hopefully) minority of frum people for actual bloodshed if the Jerusalem gay pride parade is allowed to happen. The "hate and kill" attitude that I have recently spoken of is a more general example, and the hating and blaming of non-religous Jews for all our problems. We also know of the large amount of hate and animosity between different types of frum Jews; haredi vs religious Zionist, Kahane vs non-Kahane, Chassid vs Mitnaged, one Chassidic sect vs another.

These Rabbis apparantly feel that anything that would stop Jews from dying NOW is a good thing (the desire for peace at any cost will IY"H be the subject of my next posting.) What they don't realize is that, however long the hudna period is, when it is over even MORE Jews will die. Maybe they are among those who are so convinced that Mashiach will be here any day that they figure he will come before the hudna ends. If so, no matter how much we are obligted to anticipate the coming of Mashiach, the rule "we do not rely on miracles" still applies.

As I have mentioned previously, the only way to truly end the violence for ever is to win the battle in the Heavenly court. Meanwhile, our Army has to continue it's flanking action to protect us from the physical enemies. During this season of T'shuva especially, we should be concentrating on ending all the hatreds and animosities mentioned above; that is the only answer.