Sunday, 26th of Sivan, 5785 (Hebrew Calendar)
“After Fordo – Conclusions, Lessons, and Warnings”
By Rabbi Yehuda Epstein – Chairman of “Kedushat Tzion”
(The English translation of Rabbi Epstein’s article is by vilnagaon.org. Press on this link for the original Hebrew.)
There are moments in the life of a nation when time seems to stand still, so that we may feel what is called “the flapping wings of history.” In these exceptional moments, two paths lie before us, and the choice we make will profoundly influence many years into the future. Such was the moment before the Six-Day War, before the declaration of the State, and before the attack on the Iraqi nuclear reactor. Such is this moment, too—after the Iranian nuclear program, built over decades with the declared goal of annihilating the people of G-d, has gone up in flames and dissipated with the wind.
But before we fall into euphoria, it is our duty to warn of the great dangers that may arise from this new reality, alongside the great hope. Everything depends on the path we choose:
— The path of faith in the Creator of the Universe, recognizing His mighty miracles and His boundless love for His people,
— The path of reconnecting to the historical process of renewing the covenant between the Beloved and His bride on the road to eternal redemption.
Or, Heaven forbid, we may follow the path of relying on foreign nations, bowing before Trump, denying our covenant with G-d, and being drawn into the vision of a “New Middle East” based on normalization with Saudi Arabia and “recognition” of the Palestinians’ rights to our land as an inevitable price for that normalization.
Two paths lie before us, and our destiny depends on the one we choose. These two paths are not contingent on the results of strategic simulations held by the National Security Council. They are not dependent on the political calculations of the Foreign Ministry. They cannot be reduced to mathematical formulas or cold realistic scenarios. They hinge on vision, on understanding our mission, on faith, on trust in G-d—the rarest of all resources. Like it or not, these are what truly determine the fate of our nation—despite the learned analyses of strategy experts, who calculate every factor but the one that matters most: the Creator of the Universe and our relationship with Him.
If we rise to the greatness of this moment, it can become a formative step on our journey toward redemption and the salvation of our souls. If we project to ourselves and the world that “in Your Name we shall trample our enemies”, that it was through G-d’s help that we destroyed the enemy—then, and only then, we will merit the blessings promised to us in the Torah and by our prophets. If we understand that even Trump would have done nothing had Israel not taken the initiative to act according to the principle, “If someone rises up to kill you—kill him first.” If we grasp that this is a religious war, and in this war, the G-d of Israel defeats the Deity/Deities of Islamic murder and the hypocritical piety of Christianity—then we will know that our victory comes from our loyalty to G-d.
Then we will witness the complete downfall of our internal enemies and finally assert full sovereignty over our land, establishing the House of our Lives—the Temple. But if we miss this moment, we risk choosing the wrong path.
For despite the importance of eliminating the Iranian nuclear threat, there exists a far more dangerous national threat to our existence: the hostile Arab population within our own borders—from Gaza to Umm al-Fahm, from Shechem (Nablus) to Lod, from Rahat to Sakhnin. A population that believes we stole their land and prays daily for the end of the Jewish state. Unlike the Iranians, who mostly boasted for decades, the internal Arab enemy has murdered, slaughtered, and terrorized the people of G-d for over a century, culminating in that bitter and tragic Shemini Atzeret attack.
This enemy, unlike Iran, sits in our land, enjoying rights we foolishly grant, sitting even in the Knesset and working openly to dismantle the Jewish state. Worse still, there are too many among us who strive to keep us weak. Now is a golden opportunity to expel this enemy from our land and solve the harder nuclear level, problem of Israel—paving the way for the Kingdom of G-d in His land.
This brings us to the second possibility: Heaven forbid, that we fail to rise to the moment. That instead of grasping our historical and religious duty, we fall for the secular analyses of shallow commentators, thinking that America “saved us,” and get swept into a diplomatic move of normalization with Saudi Arabia. A deluded idea that the Abraham Accords with “moderate” Sunni nations will bring us security and economic prosperity after breaking the Shiite axis of evil.
We must already warn that such a move will be a historic disaster, and today’s euphoria will turn into wailing soon enough. Just as after Saddam Hussein’s defeat in the First Gulf War, President Bush Sr. exploited the moment to drag Israel into a political adventure that still leaves us wounded today—so too could Trump, for his own economic and political reasons, impose normalization with Saudi Arabia.
This clever Sunni state, despite its outer display of “moderation” and “practicality,” is Iran’s main competitor for the title of world’s top terrorism exporter. And it will demand payment on the Palestinian front. Then all the “diplomatic experts” will claim we have no choice. They’ll say we owe everything to America, so we must now sacrifice ourselves on the altar of the “Palestinazi” national threat to our existence, the threat the Torah warned about when it said in Parashat Masei:
“But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those whom you allow to remain shall be barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land wherein you dwell. And it shall come to pass, that what I thought to do to them—I will do to you.”
We must now reaffirm several basic truths:
- Trump rode the wave of the Israeli victory—not the other way around.
- The Arab enemy within is far more dangerous than the distant Iranian enemy.
- This is a religious war between the G-d of Israel and the Deity/Deities of Islam. We must trust that He will save us on all fronts—both from visible enemies and from suited politicians seeking to strip our battlefield victory of its true meaning.
- Saudi Arabia is the head of the Sunni axis of evil, just as dangerous as the Shiite one. It includes Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, ISIS, and other terror groups. Saudi Arabia uses political hypocrisy to pose as a fighter of terror in the West, while in truth it serves terrorism politically and may deliver it strategic victories that it could never achieve by the sword.
- Above all—our fate is in G-d’s hands, and our relationship with Him determines our success. Our interests are not the same as those of the U.S., not even under Trump. We are not part of the Western world, even though it too is under attack by Islam. We are G-d’s people, fighting on multiple fronts—against Islam and against the Western culture that idolizes man and exiles G-d from history. Progressive liberalism is the extreme expression of that exile, but even the conservative West is far from understanding the Divine historical plan for creation.
We must connect to this process, learn our heritage, understand the immense love between the Beloved and His bride, and realize that this is a time of love. “The buds have appeared in the land, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.” We have returned here to establish the Kingdom of G-d and renew our days as of old, to welcome the Divine Presence among us and to merit eternal salvation.
Just as Iran did not stop this with a nuclear weapon, Saudi Arabia will not stop it with sweet talk. The Abraham Accords will give way to the truth: “Through Isaac shall your seed be called” (see Nedarim 31b). Even Trump’s economic interests will not tempt us to trade the infinite love of the Beloved for the deceptive allure of the “coalition of moderates.”
If we merit understanding these truths, we can then truly say:
“For the Jews there was light and gladness, joy and honor.”
Comment by the editor: What Rabbi Epstein wrote about should be seen in the light of the post: The Kfar Darome Miracle Was Not Enough To Save the Jewish Communities in Gaza From the “Deep State” and A Biblical Curse Here is an excerpt:
The Biblical Curse As Explained By Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh
He thus without realizing it, fulfilled the Biblical Curse in Bamidbar/Numbers 33 as explained by Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh:
33:55
ואם לא תורישו את יושבי הארץ, “And if you will fail to drive out the inhabitants of the land, etc.” According to Megillah 10 which says that wherever the word והיה occurs it alludes to something joyful, the meaning of the word here would be that although the reason the Israelites would decide {with joy} to allow some of these inhabitants to remain for the performance of menial duties, etc., i.e. in order to enjoy their services, G-d would see to it, that instead, these remaining inhabitants would prove to be thorns in their eyes and pricks in their sides and that these foreigners would harass the new owners.
וצררו אתכם על הארץ, “and they shall harass you in the land, etc.” The Torah means that not only will they harass you in the part of the land that you did not drive them out of, but they will harass you even in the parts of the country which you have conquered and driven them out of and which you have settled. They will challenge you to leave what they consider to be their country. The meaning of the word על in this context is similar to Numbers 20,24: על אשר מריתם את פי, “because you have rebelled against My word.” We have a similar meaning of the word על in Deut. 32,51.
33:56
כאשר דמיתי לעשות להם, “as I meant to do unto them, etc.” My commandment was meant for your benefit. Seeing you have not fulfilled it, My commandment remains unfulfilled; I therefore have no choice but to fulfill it in respect of these people you have left in the land.
Note: Elsewhere in his commentary, Ohr Hachaim indicates that the curse is not limited to the situation where Canaanites are left in parts of Biblical Israel.
Comment #2: Will the U.S.A. benefit in the long run from the attack on Fordo?
Based on the precedent of tractate Avoda Zara 8b it appears that Hashem will give the U.S.A. some military benefit.