The third week of the war is coming to an end. Our brothers and sisters in Israel are fighting a war and we are trying to support them in every way possible, spiritually, financially, and everything in between. We are confident that the next stages of the war will result in victory and pray to G-d that the hostages are redeemed and that everyone remains safe and sound.
This week I found the words I needed to articulate what we need to know about this current conflict. You see, there is a Jewish tradition dating back to Moses for Jews to read a portion of the Torah every week, commonly known as the weekly Parsha. This exercise is not meant to simply connect us to our most treasured traditions, rather it is the way G-d communicates to us everything we need to know about the current week. As the Alter Rebbe, the founder of the Chabad movement famously taught, “We must live with the times,” which means we must live our lives based on the timely messages we can learn from the weekly Parsha.
Sometimes it’s easier to understand the divine messages and their relevance and sometimes more difficult, but this week I found the messages from the Parsha to be crystal clear.
The opening story of this week’s Parsha is G-d’s instruction to our patriarch Abraham to go to Israel. Although at the time it was known as the “Land of Canaan” because the heathen Canaanites were conquering it from the indigenous Semites, G-d promised Abraham the land would ultimately belong to his descendants, the Jewish people.
The divine eternal promise of the land is mentioned four different times throughout the Parsha, in four separate contexts: 1. Upon Abraham’s arrival to the land. 2. After his nephew Lot moves away from him. 3. At the Covenant of the Parts. 4. When G-d instructed Abraham to do the Bris circumcision when he was 99 years old.
The most important message we must know as Jews throughout the world is that the Land of Israel belongs to us. Especially when many nations protest the Jewish presence in the Middle East, we must know with absolute certainty that the Jews living in Israel are in the right place at the right time and should never apologize for it.
Perhaps more chillingly connected to our current circumstances, is the fact that twice in the Parsha we learn how someone close to Abraham was taken hostage. His wife Sara was kidnapped by the Egyptian Pharaoh and his nephew Lot was taken captive by a marauding army of an Axis of four evil nations. Sound familiar?
When Sara was kidnapped, neither G-d nor Abraham negotiated her release. G-d inflicted Pharaoh and his household with some terrifying inflictions and she was hastily released the next morning. When Lot was taken captive Abraham did not hesitate to go to war against the armies who snatched him despite the overwhelming odds. Miraculously he managed to wipe them out and rescue all the captives and their possessions.
On Monday, as I thanked G-d for the release of two elderly Jewish women from captivity at the hands of the barbarians in Gaza, I realized that the second section of the Parsha, which correlates to Monday, is the section that discusses the miraculous release of our Matriarch Sara from captivity. There is no coincidence!
I hope this message encourages you to appreciate the miracles happening as we speak and to take an active role in winning this war through increasing in Torah study, Mitzvah observance and giving charity. Keep your morale high and think positively about the future. And may we merit very soon for all this to come to an end with the arrival of Moshiach who will usher in an era of global peace and tranquility for all.