To Defeat An Enemy

Parshat Masei

by Rabbi Avi Billet

When the war with Midian did not originally go as planned, the Torah told us (31:14) that Moshe became angry at the appointed officers. The “Ish Yehudi” explained Moshe’s anger, in light of Moshe being a humble person with a checked demeanor, suggesting that the Torah is showing that when the going was tough, Moshe was powerful, resolute and strong. During war, the Ish Yehudi said, there is no place for softness and emotions, and not for giving in and for forgiving.

           

Really, war is meant to destroy enemy infrastructure (31:10), so they can give up any desire to fight and focus only on rebuilding and bettering their lives, rather than thinking only of killing the enemy.

            

As General Patton said in his famous speech to the Third Army during World War II, prior to the Normandy invasion, “I don't want [to hear] any messages saying 'I'm holding my position.' …We're advancing constantly and we're not interested in holding anything…Our plan of operation is to advance and keep on advancing. We're going to go through the enemy…to absolute victory.”

            

The beginning of Masei reminds us of another epic battle waged against an Israelite enemy. As it recounts the journeys, the Torah says “And Egypt was burying those who had died when God struck the firstborns and destroyed their gods.” (33:4) The only “proportional response” to Egyptian treachery was to hit them where they’d lose the will to keep the slaves any longer.

            

And even when they chose to chase after the Children of Israel, Egypt’s aims seemed to be to attack civilians. Was it a traditional battlefield? Hardly. Did all of Israel have their backs to the sea? Yes. And thank God, He carried the day and wiped out the Egyptian army so they would have no desire to fight the Israelites anymore – we don’t hear from them for over 500 years! There is even an alliance between Egypt and Israel during the time of King Solomon! The first attack of Egypt against Israel takes place in the fifth year of Solomon’s son, Rahavam’s, reign. (Kings I 14:25) A very different time, and a very different set of circumstances. It would be similar to Britain attacking the United states in the year 2276.

            

In anarticle written in March 2012, during a different Gaza operation, Rabbi PhilipLefkowitz (Agudas Achim in Chicago) quoted a WWII veteran who explained how wars are won. Using Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki as examples, the veteran said wars are won when the leadership no longer has the support of the devastated population.

            

Or, as we saw in ancient Egypt, when the enemy army is annihilated.

            

Of course, assuming the election in 2006 was legitimate, and that, as I’ve read, Hamas gained power most likely on account of PA corruption, one wonders how things would go were there to be another election in Gaza.

            

Silly me, thinking Hamas would ever allow an election.

            

There was another article in the Blaze about how there are over 1000 millionaires amongst Hamas leadership. You know, the same leaders who send others out as suicide bombers but personally and cowardly hide in bunkers. So much for ridding Gaza of corrupt “politicians.”

            

Gazans don’t have their backs to the sea. Israel has no interest in pushing them there. It just wants a peaceful, demilitarized neighbor.

            

Israel does its best to avoid civilian casualties – no army in the world does it better. And, I suppose, since Israel would prefer to live in peace with its Gaza neighbors (who have every opportunity, with proper anti-fighting leadership, to create a Singapore or Miami Beach!), it is not interested in pulling a Dresden, Hiroshima, or Warsaw to force the enemy to capitulate – even though militarily it seems like the most definite way to end Gazan fighting and infiltration once and for all. Israel will continue its pinpoint strikes and put its own soldiers in harm’s way to protect the civilian population of Gaza.

            

I wish for the civilians in Gaza, who truly want peace, to live out productive lives with leadership who accepts Israel’s presence as a reality and acknowledges Israel’s right to exist. A leadership who is concerned more for their own civilians’ wellbeing than in any military actions against peace-wanting-and-loving Israel. And civilians who accept similar notions. Absent such an approach, there will never be peace in Gaza.

            

And of course, we pray for Israel’s safety, for the safety of Israel’s precious soldiers who are sons, brothers, fathers – too many of whom have been lost this week – and for peace to reign in the region. May the IDF and the Israeli government be granted insight from Heaven, and may they be guided through the darkness of war to achieve their goals and more, to bring about a resolution that can last at least 500 years.

To Not Lose A Man

As I post this, Israel has begun its ground offensive, and news of the first Israeli casualty of war has been announced. Saddest condolences to his family and to עם ישראל. God bless the IDF. May they eradicate Hamas מתחת השמים.

Parshat Matot

by Rabbi Avi Billet

After the battle with Midian, the Torah tells us that the generals and captains, who were officers over the army's divisions, approached Moshe. They said to him, 'We have taken a census of the warriors under our command and not a single man has been lost!” (31:48-49)

            

The Battle of Midian is one of the more horrific battles described in the Torah, at least as far as casualties and what the Children of Israel were tasked to do. Isn’t it incredible, then, that after a long and arduous battle, there are no casualties on the Israelite side?

            

Of course, the literal translation is not the only perspective on what it means to not lose a soldier. Rashbam says no one died in a plague. There are two ways to look at such a statement. It may be referring to a plague that God wrought – in other words, no one died of a sin. The other possibility is that in the history of wars, until World War II and the advent of modern medicine, it was always the case that more soldiers died of illness than on the battlefield. If no one died from illness, that was also an amazing miracle.

            

Chazal taught homiletically that “we didn’t lose a man” means “to sin” (Shabbat 64a), that no soldier fell to depravity and committed a moral error that makes the rest of us look bad. [Fascinatingly, the Baal Haturim notes – based on Yebamot 61a – that this Hebrew phrase has the same numerical value (gematria) as “La’aveirot” – “to sins” (718)]. The gemara asks, if that was the case, why did the soldiers feel a need to bring a sin offering? To atone for their souls, because they had thoughts to commit sins, though they did not act upon them. The Alshikh couched this idea as two battles – the physical battle in the trenches, and the spiritual battle which one has in one’s heart.

            

Rabbi Yochanan Luria (Meshivat Nefesh) examined the story and concluded that much of what happens to the general populace, or to the regular soldiers, is dependant upon the behavior of the leadership. In their particular case, since the princes at their time were model citizens, it became a merit for Israel – even if the soldiers plundered for themselves (in 31:53).

            

The Meshekh Chokhma adds that, in a sense, this was an admission of wrongdoing in the Baal Peor incident that concluded Parshat Balak and ran into Parshat Pinchas. The leaders are saying now, “We were able to see that when we effectively lead our men, we can prevent them from falling into moral depravity. Had we only been good leaders when the daughters of Moab came along, we could have prevented the plague that took the lives of 24,000.”

            

In a roundabout way, the Kli Yakar suggests that “We didn’t lose a man” is a follow up to the instructions of 31:17-18 of whom to kill in the war. The point of the removal of much of the civilian population was to avoid suspicion that the Israelite soldiers had ulterior motives in battle, beyond enacting the revenge that God had commanded them to conduct at the beginning of the chapter (31:2). [Read it inside – on 31:17 – to understand his comments in full.]

            

Were we living in a different time, I would probably focus on the second teaching of the Alshikh for the final lesson here. That we wage a battle with our yetzer hara (Evil Inclination) on a regular basis, and we must be able to overcome.

            

But these times are far from normal. And the State of Israel is facing an existential threat. The international community will surely yell, and call for a cease fire, and for Israel to exercise restraint, and only to utilize proportional response. But this is not how a war is won. Unless Hamas and its infrastructure (its people and its machinery/ technology) are eradicated, it is only a matter of time before they rebuild and do this all again.

            

R. Luria talked about leadership, and the Kli Yakar focused on soldiers being above suspicion. Which leads me to two concluding thoughts.

            

Israeli leadership emphasizes over and over that there is no fight with the civilian population of Gaza. But, as Bibi Netanyahu also noted, “We use missiles to protect our civilians. They use their civilians to protect their missiles.” There will unfortunately be civilian casualties because their own leadership tells them to be human shields.

            

If you haven’t read the letter written by Givati Commander Ofer Winter on his thoughts about being the Brigade that will rid the world of Hamas, you haven’t seen what Jewish leadership is all about. Google it, find it, read it, and be proud that we are part of Am Yisrael. And of what a true Jewish leader is.

            

Finally, that Israel’s soldiers should be above suspicion. I believe with a complete heart that Israel’s soldiers will do their duty and will not fall to the depraved state of committing moral sins. War is war and war is horrible. But the soldiers are duty bound to protect Israel and its citizens, and not to engage in any horrific acts against the civilian population – whether women or children (except in defense of their own lives).

            

We certainly pray that Israel “not lose a man” – not in battle, not in sin, and not psychologically, and not from disease. And that God should watch over and protect them, from every trouble, woe and injury, so they may all return safely home, to live out lives telling the story of how they saved the State of Israel, ridding it of a terrorist organization, with honor, dignity and through sanctifying God’s Name. 

Torah Teaches Not to Sin

I wrote this at around the time the rockets began flying and Israel started its retalliation - which I hope turns to an annihilation of Hamas' infrastructure, if not the entire entity. The message is still important - the difference between us and them

Parshat Pinchas                

by Rabbi Avi Billet

Parshat Pinchas contains the Maftir readings for all of the Biblical holidays. Every holiday had a specific set of korbanot (offerings) that were brought in its honor. A similarity running across all of the holidays is a single goat which was brought as a “chatat” (sin offering) to atone for the sins of the people.

                

However, when it comes to the holiday of Shavuot, the Torah does not label the goat as a “chatat.” That word is missing from the description, when it says, “A single goat, to atone for you.” (28:30)

                

The Minchat Shai notes that the way the goat is presented here is as a “s’ir izim” and not with a vov to say “u’s’ir izim.” As only Yom Kippur has a similar formulation (every other holiday says “u’s’ir” – AND a goat), he suggests that Yom Kippur and Shavuot have in common that they are days when the Torah was given. The Tablets were finally presented to the people on Yom Kippur, and the contents of the Tablets were declared to the people on Shavuot. In order to contradict the Sadducees who suggested the Torah was not given on Shavuot, the Torah made the S’ir to S’ir comparison to make it clear that Shavuot is a day when the Torah was given.

                

A number of commentaries point to the Yerushalmi in Rosh Hashana 4:8 which explains the phenomenon as follows: Rabbi Mesharshia explained that the “chatat” not being mentioned in the context of Atzeret (Shavuot) was God’s way of saying to Israel, “Since you accepted the yoke of My Torah, I am considering you as if you never sinned [and therefore don’t need a “sin offering.”]”  

                

This, concludes the Torah Temimah, is the proof that the Torah was actually given on the same date as Shavuot.

                

Of course, in Mishpatim (chapter 24, note 36), the Torah Temimah explains that Shavuot is on the 50^th day of the Omer – which can either fall on the 5^th, 6^th, or 7^th of Sivan. (Rosh Hashana 6b) This is why when we describe the holiday, we call it “zman matan torateinu” (the time period of the giving of the Torah) and not “yom matan torateinu” (the actual day of the giving of the Torah).

                

Rashi notes in Shmot 19:1 and Devarim 26:16 that we must view the Torah as if it was given every day. Pinning the giving of the Torah to a single day, in a sense, cheapens its value – makes it as if it is to be celebrated on an anniversary, as opposed to throughout the year.

                

It is fascinating that the Torah Temimah would suggest that the missing word “Chatat” in the description of the goat offering proves that Shavuot and the giving of the Torah coincided – even as he points to his own commentary in Shmot which suggests that it’s not an exact science.

                

In truth – the matter could be one of simple semantics. The Torah may have been given on Shavuot, but since the date of Shavuot (Biblically speaking) is not always the same date (could be 5, 6, or 7 Sivan), if we celebrate Shavuot as the day rather than a specific date as the day of the giving of the Torah, then everyone is right.

                

Because the truth is that whether a missing vov proves the point (Minchat Shai) or the missing word “chatat” proves the point doesn’t matter. The point is that we have the Torah. The anniversary of its giving is perhaps noteworthy, but to a large degree it is irrelevant.

                

When news came that arrests were made over the murder of an Arab teen after the deaths of Gilad, Eyal and Naftali became known, and that the initial suspects are Jews, my sister told me she was going to attend a “Lo Tirzach” (Thou Shalt not Murder) Rally in Israel. It was postponed, ironically, because of rockets out of the Gaza Strip.

                

A life governed by the Torah’s teachings is one in which the deliberate sin has no place. We are all human, and we make mistakes. But there is a major difference between human failure and human error and descending to depths that are completely antithetical to the Torah’s teachings. [The irony of Pinchas being a vigilante is not lost, but his circumstance was VERY different.]

                

I personally have no sympathy for terrorists and murderers, and I have a very different mindset than the State of Israel generally has about how to deal with those who have Jewish blood on their hands. But if it turns out that those who murdered an Arab teenager were Jews, and that they did it because Arabs murdered Jewish teens (or whatever reason), they were operating under a Hammurabi Code, and not under a Torah code.

                

We rally for our People when our People are in need. And we must also rally for our true beliefs, distancing ourselves from those who conduct themselves in a manner that is antithetical to the Torah’s teachings.

               

If Shavuot’s goat offering was not called a “chatat” because the giving of the Torah made the people sinless, then it is the Torah’s teachings which should always guide us in being sinless. 

Message to the Shul

This is what was sent out after the news of the deaths of Naftali Frankel, Eyal Yifrach and Gilad Shaar became public.
******************************

Dear Members

By now you've probably heard that Gilad, Eyal and Naftali's bodies were found in Israel. 

We join with their families in mourning. We join with Am Yisrael in mourning. And we applaud the efforts of the IDF that seem to have been, in retrospect and sadly (owing to the reality that they were dead all along), an exercise in futility beyond in bringing them home for kevurah.  

We don't have answers. We pray for a day when stories like this are tales of the past because Am Yisrael is living in peace in Eretz Yisrael. 

May all the tefillos that were said over the last few weeks serve as a merit for klal Yisrael in ways that we need not know of because they are working behind the scenes to keep things normal. 

Umacha Hashem Dim'ah Me'al kol panim.

Avi Billet

An Enemy Doomed to Fail

I wrote this several hours before the word come out that the 3 kidnapped teenagers, Naftali Frankel, Eyal Yifrach and Gilad Sha'ar, had been murdered almost immediately after being kidnapped, and that their bodies had been found. The point is still relevant - though I've included a postscript below...

Parshat Balak

by Rabbi Avi Billet

The story of Balak and Bilaam is so fascinating because it is indicative of an obsession that hasn’t waned in the history of Mankind since the time of Avraham our forefather.

                

It is what Hitler called the Jewish Question. It is what Haman referred to as “A single nation spread all around your kingdom.” (Esther 3:8)

                

The thought process goes something like this: "There is a nation that is unlike us, whose very existence is troubling us. Even if they leave us alone. The fact that they are there, that they exist, is enough to make us sick to our stomachs, until the problem is resolved because they are removed from where we are."

                

Even today, the Jewish State – Israel – faces similar sentiments from some of its indigent (or is it indignant?) population, who will not be happy until Israel is Judenrein. Thank God, Israel encounters this challenge from a position of strength, and we continue to support that strength, as we hope and pray that Israel will be around as a Jewish State until the end of time.

                

The Torah tells us that Bilaam told Balak to build 7 mizbeachs (altars) on three different hilltops. The first time he did this was at the beginning of Chapter 23, at which point he brought a bull and a ram as an offering, perhaps one pair of animals for each mizbeach.

                

Bilaam expresses his confidence that God will “Happen upon him” and sure enough, God does. In Bilaam’s pride over what has been done, he explains to God, “I’ve arranged these 7 mizbeachs and I brought the bull and the ram on the mizbeach.” That he leaves Balak out of his depiction of what took place just proves what we’ve known about Bilaam all along. He only thinks of himself and what makes him look good.

                

But does he really need to explain to God what he did – as if God, the all-seeing and all-knowing didn’t see and doesn’t know?

                

Midrash and commentaries explain that from Bilaam’s view there was tremendous depth to this move of creating 7 mizbeachs. Compare my 7 to the Children of Israel’s 1. Seven is far more than one. (Midrash Aggadah) 7 people had built a personal mizbeach – Adam, Kayin, Hevel, Noach, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov – and Bilaam was coming to outrank them through building seven to counter their seven. (Tanchuma)

                

The arrogance of Bilaam’s thought process neglected to remind him that if indeed he was trying to impress God, he was failing simply because he violated Bal Tosif – the prohibition against adding in one’s mitzvah observance. Now Bilaam could hardly be counted as a mitzvah observer – he was in the midst of violating God’s instructions not to join Balak and try to curse the Children of Israel. But he fancied himself as being connected to God in a special way – as he told Balak’s men several times – “I can’t violate the word of the Lord, my God.” (22:18, 24:13)

                

Rashi points out what might come to destroy Bilaam’s logic as defined until now, because Rashi says Bilaam was coming to counter the 7 mizbeachs built by Avraham (4), Yitzchak (1), and Yaakov (2). If he was indeed coming to counter the personal mizbeachs built before, he is 4 shy – when we count those the Tanchuma mentioned and the multiple mizbeachs of Avraham and Yaakov. His bringing a bull and ram was to outdo Avraham who only brought a ram. Bilaam, as we might surmise, can hardly outdo Avraham (see Avot 5:19)

                

Despite it all, God told Bilaam to return to Balak, and “Koh t’daber” – and say the following. Rabbi Chaim Paltiel points out that the reference with the word “Koh” was to the promise made by God to Avraham, “Koh yihyeh zarakha” – so will your children be. In other words, in the first pronouncement regarding the Israelites that Bilaam was to say in front of Balak, he was to remind him that this venture, irrespective of the person (Bilaam) and the trimmings (the mizbeachs), was doomed to fail. Because of a promise made long ago to Avraham Avinu.

                

There are anti-Semites and there are anti-Semites who mask as being Jew lovers. It is our hope that the philo-Semites of the world will be able to see that whether anti-Semites are open about their feelings or wear a smiling mask that hides their true colors, those who harbor a hatred for the Jewish people and the State of Israel, and who think Jews living in Israel is an obstacle to peace, these beliefs are the real obstacles to peace. And like Bilaam, who got it but didn’t really want to get it, they too should be doomed to fail in their efforts to harm the Jewish people.

post script: The tragedy of the deaths of Eyal, Naftali and Gilad is so devastating because it was so senseless. What was gained? Unity and prayer amongst the Jewish people. What was lost? Three young men. And the lives of their families changed forever. 

The Palestinians or Hamas got nothing out of this - no prisoner exchange, no respect. And even condemnation from Mahmoud Abbas.

הקב"ה ינחם אתכם ואתנו בתוך שאר אבלי ציוון וירושלים

We continue to pray for the day when an equitable solution can come to the State of Israel, when stories like this are only in the past because they no longer take place in a land whose inhabitants work for the betterment of all people who dwell in it.

Captive Taken, Israel Unites As One

Parshat Chukat

by Rabbi Avi Billet

In the beginning of Chapter 21, the Torah tells a tale of how an encounter with the Canaanites of the Negev concluded with the capture of a single captive – which Rashi identifies as a maidservant.

            

While I generally try to shy away from attempts at identifying why this might have happened, Targum Yonatan and others focus on the recent death of Aharon, and the subsequent disappearance of the clouds, as the opening that provided the chance for a military encounter to go sour.

            

The Torah continues the tale explaining that Israel made a vow to God saying, “If you give this nation into my hands, I will turn their city into a ‘cherem’ (will forbid the taking of any booty).”

            

God, in turn, listened to the voice of Israel and allowed them to defeat the Canaanites.

            

Two questions come to mind. Why wouldn’t Moshe pray on behalf of the people, as he has so many times in the past? Why is the language of Israel praying written in the singular – isn’t the whole nation, millions of people, praying?

            

The Shakh explains why Moshe might not have prayed on behalf of the people. Following a line of thinking that appears in many places in the Midrash and Chazal, the Shakh suggests (based on the Yalkut Shimoni) that when the people saw Moshe descending from the mountain with Elazar, and without Aharon, they were suspicious that Moshe had killed his brother.

            

There were actually 3 groups – those who suspected Moshe of murder, those who suspected Elazar of murder, and those who believed Aharon had died a natural death. To squelch all the rumors, the people were given a vision of Aharon being accompanied by angels to the point that all understood that he had died naturally.

            

Two out of three groups were suspicious of murder rendering Moshe uninterested in praying on their behalf. Let them pray for themselves if after 40 years they could even conceive of such a notion that Moshe or Elazar killed their brother/father.

            

The singular language is more compelling of a question to me, but in light of recent events, I think nothing could be more clear as to why the people are depicted as praying in the singular, in the aftermath of one person being taken captive.

            

All I have read is that the country of Israel, as fractured as it sometimes is in times of peace, and when people have time to fight about things that, all told, are not that important, is a different country today than it was before Naftali, Eyal and Gilad were kidnapped. We could surely benefit from the prayer of Moshe at this time. But in the absence of a Moshe Rabbeinu, we are coming together to pray as one.

            

In ancient times all it took was one maidservant being taken captive, and the entire nation of Israel became one. “Israel took a vow (‘vayidar’ – in the singular), ‘If you place the Canaanites in MY hand, I will leave the city desolate (with the cherem).’”

            

The nation and the country of Israel understands this well. The nation as one has taken a vow to “bring our boys back.” As of this writing there was not much news or hopes to hang onto. But the nation of Israel seems united as one, to rid its land of the evil of Hamas, and to destroy the infrastructure that allows evil people to roam freely, to kidnap innocent children because they “are frustrated with the occupation.” And of course, to see the three boys returned to their homes in safety.

            

Most of us do things, and sometimes even regrettable things, when we are frustrated. But we don’t kill people, or kidnap children. Moshe would be very frustrated with even the suspicion of such.

            

That the world accepts the Palestinian narrative that terrorism, and kidnapping, and taking soldiers is a direct result of frustration just speaks volumes of how liberal thinking goes. “If it’s Jews, they can’t be right. They’ve brought it upon themselves. And the frustrated are justified.”

            

Maybe Israel – the nation and the country – can take a vow, using the Torah’s precedent, that if You, God, will help rid this pestilence from our land – whether through political means, relocation strategies, exile, etc, then we, united as one, will not take anything from the cherem, and we will not celebrate the emptiness of once occupied lands.

            

We, as one People, will celebrate that we live in peace, and that our youth need not fear when they hitchhike, because they know they are in a “medinah yehudit” (Jewish country) in which chesed is the guiding principle of Jews helping Jews, because of course the person behind the wheel is concerned only for your welfare.