LESSONS FROM THE WAR Yehonasan Gefen
One Adam Gadol suggests that the saddest aspect of a tragedy is when a person does not grow from that tragedy. As Klal Yisrael is reeling from the devastating attack of our enemies, it is incumbent upon of all of us to ensure that the tragedy brings about lasting changes in our lives.
A number of leading Rabbanim and educators have noted that the past year saw some of the greatest disunity and outright hatred between various parts of the Jewish people, particularly in Eretz Yisrael, and that the onset of the war has in contrast led to an unprecedented amount of unity among us. Accordingly, while it is impossible to understand the ways of HaShem, and exactly why this tragedy took place, it seems that the area of unity is one that is very pertinent to the current situation and therefore it is incumbent upon us to improve in this vital area.
The first stage in working on unity is understanding the Torah view of exactly what it does involve and what it does not involve. It is important to note that the secular view of unity is very different from the Torah view. The secular view believes that every outlook and lifestyle is valid and correct and therefore there is no reason for viewing anyone else negatively. This is based on the view that there is no absolute morality and hence nobody has any right to disapprove of his fellow’s way of living. This is totally against the Torah view that there is an absolute morality, which means that there is a correct outlook and an incorrect outlook, and that some lifestyles are objectively immoral when they contradict the morality espoused by the Torah. This begs the question that if unity does not mean that everyone is equally correct then what does it mean?
The first point is to recognize that there was only one time in Jewish history when the Jewish people were completely united, and that was at Mattan Torah when the Jewish people were “like one man with one heart”. That means that they were totally focused on the same purpose of doing ratson HaShem. This is the ultimate kind of unity - other examples of unity in history were on a lower level than this as the people did not share this ultimate shared purpose, rather they had a less exalted goal which united them to a degree. Yet, even a lower form of unity is highly commendable. For example, the Dor Hafalagah are praised for being united in a shared purpose even though that purpose was nefarious.
Based on this, the unity that Klal Yisrael is presently experiencing seems to be primarily because of a recognition of a shared enemy who does not distinguish between different types of Jews. However, when this war is over, there is the risk that the same hatred and disunity will return because the differences in outlook that existed before the war will remain after the war. Given this, what can we do to improve the unity of the Jewish people in general and our relationships with individual Jews specifically?
As we all know, Chazal[1] teach that the second Beis HaMikdash was destroyed because of sinas chinam – this literally means baseless hatred, meaning that people hated each other for no reason. My Rebbe, Rav Yitzchak Berkovits shlit’a notes that the sinas chinam that Chazal refer to took place when there were major disagreements about how to respond to the Roman rule at the time. Some held that we should tolerate their hegemony as long as they allowed Jews to keep the Torah, while others held that we must fight them to the death to regain autonomy[2]. This disagreement resulted in civil war, the deaths of many Jews, and ultimately played a major role in enabling the Romans to destroy the Beis HaMikdash. Rav Berkovits asks how this can be described as ‘baseless hatred’, implying there was no reason for the hatre - this was not the case – they hated each other because they had fundamentally different outlooks, so how can Chazal say that there was no reason for the hatred? Rav Berkovits answers that disagreeing with someone, even in a very significant area of belief, is not a reason to hate him. And even if we believe someone is seriously misguided in his beliefs and actions, this does not justify despising him. Based on the sources discussing the Mitzva to love one’s fellow, and at times to hate sinners, it emerges that one may and sometimes should detest a person’s actions, but should love his essence.[3]
As mentioned above, in the past year, there was unprecedented hatred between different sectors of Jews in Eretz Yisrael as a result of the Government’s attempted judicial reforms. Rav Berkovits comments on this:
“Without question, we have currently reached an all-time low in this area [unity]. In the wake of Israel's conflict regarding judicial reform, its right and the left flanks are completely fractured, delegitimizing one another terribly. We should have seen the writing on the wall. Now, you may not consider yourself part of that debate, but there’s a need to see to it that Jews know how to talk to one another…That doesn’t mean that we should sacrifice our values for the sake of peace. What it means is that we learn to love people we disagree with. We learn to talk to people we disagree with. We learn to understand where they’re coming from. You may be a left-basher, you may have grown accustomed to thinking that liberals are “out of their minds” or “not thinking.” So now you have a new assignment. Where are they coming from? What’s bothering them? What are they afraid of? What are their concerns? We know that human beings’ philosophies don’t sprout in a vacuum. When you hear hostility or animosity, that’s an expression of an underlying fear. Understand that. Feel for them.”[4]
Rav Berkovits is saying that even people who espouse false ideologies are not worthy of hatred, and deserve to be understood and viewed as real human beings with understandable fears, even if one feels that those fears are misguided.
The second area to work on in order to increase unity is to avoid looking down on our fellow Jews through judging favorably. This does not mean that one cannot “call a spade a spade” and identify when a person is acting immorally. However, what it does mean is that it is impossible to know who is ‘better’ in the eyes of HaShem. As it states in Pirkei Avos,[5] “do not judge your fellow until you reach his place.” One understanding of this Mishna[6] is that one’s fellow’s ‘place’ refers to everything that has shaped him until now, including his upbringing, surroundings, genetics etc. Accordingly, it is impossible to ever judge one’s fellow as one can never fully comprehend everything that results in that person’s actions and beliefs.
In a similar vein, Rav Eliyahu Dessler zt”l[7] famously teaches that each person has a different nekudas habechira (free will point), and he is judged accordingly. Therefore, a person who grows up observant will be judged very differently from someone who did not grow up that way and the ultimate measure of a person is how much he grew based on his life situation. Only HaShem can judge this, but for people it means that we can have no idea of a person’s true level because we cannot know how much they have grown. Consequently, nobody has any right to look down on anyone else, even if that person is living in the wrong way, because we cannot know whether one person is ‘better’ in HaShem’s eyes than another.
One final point that needs to be addressed is that there seems to be a tendency for some people to view the terrible events as punishments to people for doing certain aveiros. This is not the first time that this has taken place. Many decades ago, the Brisker Rav was once talking with a certain Rabbi about the difficult situation that existed at that time in Eretz Yisrael. The Rabbi blamed all the struggles on the irreligious, arguing that it was their actions that brought about the terrible state of affairs. The Brisker Rav disagreed, basing his argument on an incident in the Book of Yonah. Yonah has left Eretz Yisrael on a ship in order to avoid having to warn the people of Nineveh to repent. While he is on the ship, a terrible storm begins to rage, and the idol worshipping sailors ask Yonah what they should do. He answers that they should throw him off the ship, “for I know that it is because of me this storm is upon you[8].” The Brisker Rav pointed out that Yonah was a Prophet of HaShem. Yes, he did err in trying to evade his mission, but was nonetheless a great tzaddik. Everyone else on the ship was an idol worshipper. In Yonah’s situation, he could have easily blamed the sailors for the drastic situation. Yet he did not do that. He recognized that he was at fault and he took responsibility for it. The Brisker Rav continued, “This is why we read the story of Yonah on Yom Kippur afternoon. There will always be people around us whom we can identify as the cause of the storm, and it is very easy to do so. However, Yonah teaches us that we would do better to recognize our own role in the matter, for that is something we can do something about[9].”
Rav Akiva Tatz shlit’a adds, that instead of blaming the irreligious for their sins, we should focus more on taking responsibility for the fact that they are living this way. As the Gemara in Shabbos states,[10] during the destruction of the first Beis HaMikdash, HaShem punished the righteous before the sinners because the righteous should have done more to stop the sinners, even if in truth, their efforts wouldn’t have been fruitful. One way to start rectifying this is to initiate dialogue with secular people[11], which serves the purpose of erasing the preconceptions that they often have about us, and simultaneously, helping us to erase our preconceptions about them and to see them as human beings.
May we all ensure that this tragedy does lead to a significant change in us as individuals and as part of Klal Yisrael.
[1] Yoma, 9b.
[2] There were also major hashkafic disagreements, such as between the Prushim and the Tzadokim.
[3] See the following sources for an in-depth discussion of this topic. If anyone would like source sheets on this topic, with the explanations of Rav Berkovits, feel free to be in touch with me and I’ll send them to you: Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Rotseach U’Shemiras HaNefesh, Halacha 14: Rambam, Peirush HaMishnayos, Sanhedrin, Chapter 10, Hayesod Shlosha Asar: Ahavas Chessed, Chapter 3, Nesiv HaChessed, Os 2: Tosefos, Pesachim, 113b, Dh: Shera’ah: Machsis HaShekel, Orach Chaim, Simun 156, Sif kattan 2: Baal HaTania, Likutei Amarim, Chapter 32:
[4] Based on a talk Rav Berkovits gave in Aish HaTorah, partially transcribed in Mishpacha, Parshas Bereishis, 5784.
[5] Avos, 2:4.
[6] See Sfas Emes, Avos, 2:4.
[7] Michtav M’Eliyahu, Chelek 1, pp.111-117.
[8] Yonah, 1:12.
[9] Quoted in ‘Teshuva’, pp.256-257, by Rav Immanuel Bernstein, shlit’a.
[10] Shabbos, 55a.
[11] Obviously in such a way that there is no risk of being adversely influenced by them.
