In our current war, nearly fifty Israelis have already been killed, and more than a thousand have been wounded. In addition to this, more than a million citizens have been sitting for several weeks in bomb shelters, a nerve-wracking stay. Most of them are without a livelihood. A large portion of the residents of the North have fled their homes and scattered to all parts of the country, exiles and wanderers. Is it not out of wisdom to examine our actions, as the words of the Gemara say: “If a person sees sufferings coming upon him, he should examine his deeds”?
And they further said that the punishments of the Holy One, Blessed be He, are “measure for measure.” And this is not only to correct the past, but also to correct the future so that we do not repeat our foolishness, so that we do not continue on our insane path.
We will begin with the words of the commentary Ohr HaChaim on the Torah, on the verses:
“But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those whom you let remain of them shall be as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land wherein you dwell. And it shall come to pass [says Hashem] that as I thought to do unto them, I will do unto you!” (Numbers 33:55-56).
Ohr HaChaim comments:
“Meaning, not only will they hold onto a part of the land that you did not merit [to possess], but also a part that you [already] merited and settled in, and they will harass you over the part that you dwell in, saying: ‘Arise! Leave it!'” Until here are his words .
And see the end of the Ramban’s commentary on this verse; his language is extremely sharp, and even overly so. And when we return to examine the words of the verse, we see that Ohr HaChaim added nothing as homiletics or his own thoughts. Things are closely attached to the plain meaning of the text (Peshat). Meaning, this is written explicitly in the Torah.
We are permitted to leave in the Land only those gentiles who fulfill the Seven Commandments of the Sons of Noah, and accept the rule of Jews in their land.
Therefore, when our enemies from Lebanon fire rockets over the entire expanses of the Galilee, and cause that region of the country to be desolated of its inhabitants, is there no room to reflect that this is a punishment for our public because we remained silent at the expulsion of ten thousand Jews from their homes and their estate in Gush Katif, less than a year ago? After all, is this not similar to the Qassam shelling on the settlements of the area, without an appropriate response by the IDF, who practiced “restraint”? Indeed, the two situations are wonderfully similar. [This comment was published this week by the Bostoner Rebbe, Shlita]. For it is not enough that we did not expel our enemies from our land, but we expelled our brothers, and handed over parts of our land to our enemies. A thing that is in complete contradiction—the absolute opposite—of what the Torah commanded!
And it is impossible to defend oneself with a worn-out excuse: “What would it have availed if we had protested?” For in a similar situation, in Russia in the year 1990, ten thousand demonstrators held a sit-in strike in the Kremlin Square in Moscow, and did not move from there despite the tanks (the military force) that trampled and ran over and killed about twelve demonstrators. In the end, they overthrew the tyrannical regime. Because they stood their ground even though some of them were killed by the authorities. They were consistent in their outlook.
So it is here with us, when our tyrant (Sharon) fired ministers, and fired the Chief of Staff and also the head of the Shin Bet to force the acceptance of his opinion, and frightened members of his faction with threats—and we will not elaborate further on such despicable acts—the general public (meaning those who are not wearers of knitted yarmulkes) did not react, did not demonstrate…
…in front of the halls of the High Court of Justice (Bagatz), they did not grumble about it early and late on television and in the general press. They did not persist in a vigorous protest. Had they done so, perhaps they would have stopped the evil hand. (See Obadiah 1:11: “On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth, and foreigners entered his gates, etc., you too were like one of them!”).
But why should we complain about the past? What was, was. But to our regret, among the primary leaders of the Disengagement back then was PM Olmert. Also recently, just a few days before the outbreak of the current war, he declared in his audacity that “the Realignment (Hitkansut) is a finished fact and cannot be reversed.” Also his confidant, Minister Sheetrit, declares this week that we must quickly end our military operations in Lebanon in order to execute the Realignment. Meaning, these individuals “forgot nothing, and learned nothing.” They continue in their full heresy to despise this precious mitzvah of settling the Land of Israel.
Perhaps one can understand why they do not want to “conquer” the Land of Israel from the hands of the gentiles as commanded by the Torah, since they deny entirely the holiness of the Torah and its authority. But in a practical way and without connection to religion, at this time when the withdrawal from Gush Katif has proven that we placed a sword in the hand of our enemies to strike Sderot and Ashkelon (and who knows what else in the future?), do they not understand that the “Realignment” will bring only destruction and desolation upon Netanya and Ra’anana and more?
Why are about a million Jews in the Galilee suffering? This is a result of the weakness of mind of our prime ministers for the past six years. First, they withdrew from Lebanon (which Sharon at the time agreed to PM Barak doing so as a tactical step!). Afterwards, they remained silent in the face of the buildup of terrorist forces in southern Lebanon, even when from time to time they fired upon us. And at this time of trouble, do they still keep a criminal plan of “Realignment” in the drawer?
Therefore, it is upon all of us to make our voice heard, each person to his fellow, each person to his neighbor, each person to his staff of workers and to any interlocutor, to clarify and explain and declare, that such ways of thinking of Olmert and his colleagues are evil and corrupt, foolish and ruinous. And who knows how many troubles are destined to come because of their corruption? Until there is a public uproar, until the entire nation from one end of the land to its other end makes its word heard: “Thus far to the forces of destruction!”
“Who is wise? One who foresees the future.” We must learn from the wounds of the present. Perhaps we will gain wisdom thereby to be saved from what is destined to come.
Comment by Shlomo Moshe Scheinman: In an article that I wrote about the Heter Mechira, Rabbi Zuriel in his haskama seemed to have accepted the Chazon Ish (Shviit #24) definition of Ger Toshav. See there for details.
As a follow up to this article, see: Video: Refusing Orders by Menachem Gottlieb & Why David Believed that Uriah Was A Rebel Against the Kingdom?