Faith Forged in Captivity
The return of the hostages had me thinking. It is improbable for them to have been held behind enemy lines for over four hundred and fifty days and not have the thought that this is all for their Jewish identity. Knowing that their lot has come upon them due to their beliefs, had to have had an impact on their faith in God.
No matter if they grew up secular or if they had just a tiny concept of their religion, throughout those days and nights they got to know their Maker without a doubt. Yes, there must have been days that the pain was insufferable, but at some point, in order to see themselves out of there alive, they needed that spark of light in their hearts.
In their peril they’ve come to realize very deeply, that there is one God Who chose us as His children, and He Himself promised us that as a nation we will endure much suffering, all because we are His people. So no matter the level of faith they had beforehand, by being a hostage, their faith had to be upgraded simply for survival.
We see after the Holocaust how many of our brethren drifted away with their anger and questions. Will their future generations even remember their sacrifice or will they get lost in the infinite, slow moving, void of time? Either way, we can’t blame those for walking away since we’ve never had those challenges in our own lives. But after what we just understood, it seems that those who walked away did it after achieving a strong belief as well throughout their fight for survival.
When someone holds a grudge, they essentially never let go of the other person. Even if that person is miles and years away, the pain still lives in their heart as if the fight happened today. The same is on the opposite end with love and heartbreak. As long as we hold on, it will last. When people are angry at God, it shows how much they really want to make things right; otherwise, they would have moved on long ago.
The problem is when broken people, filled with rage, never let it out; they are consumed by the hate for years and decades, not realizing that life is passing them by and that they are raising atheists as children who know no better, since they were neglected in their upbringing. Again, we can’t blame people for being stuck in their traumatic universes, but the fact of their sadness, and them not knowing the terminal effects it has, they sprout branches that can span generations.
It is the mission of a Jewish person to connect all of the happenings in their life to the will of God. It should be natural to ask; “Since I have suffered due to this belief, should I not get to know my belief a little more?” Otherwise, what is the purpose of the pain? If there is no closure at the end, the pain will continue long after they’ve been released. The pain would be remiss if it would be chalked off as another story in history, with branches that lead nowhere.
Their stories united the Jewish people, in Israel especially after years of infighting in the Government with repeat elections every few months. The public defamation and humiliation court cases against a fellow Jew, no matter your opinion about him. Their suffering has given us hope for the future as a nation; it reignited the flame of old, the fire of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in every Jewish child across the globe. Kids who never knew the words Shema Yisrael have come to realize that they too carry the responsibility of being part of God’s chosen people.
And if their pain meant so much for the nation’s healing, it must be held by them as a badge of honor. So that they can keep on teaching us the lessons in faith, and describe the feeling of connection they felt to the rest of their believing nation as they learned on their own flesh and bones.
What else did we learn?
Even now, as we reached a deal with the help of God, the divisiveness has already started forming. Should we allow murderers to go free for the sake of the return of our girls and boys? Each side with their own true opinion. But this opinion is only true to the facts of the moment. Since these terrorists were not killed immediately, they are now being used as bargaining chips by our enemies.
There is no conscionable reason why a terrorist should not be killed for their actions, especially if they are on foreign land. Donald Trump wants to institute the death penalty for a Mexican gang member who kills an American citizen, why then should Israel not institute this policy? Some would argue that we won’t have any pawns to play with when we need to swap prisoners, but to them, we say, watch and see how many of those terrorists will think twice. You know what’s better than seventy-two virgins for a terrorist? A second chance to kill. Stop giving it to them, send them off to hell as soon as they buy their ticket. And we’ll have conspirators as pawns for negotiations.
We have to come back to normalcy. It is imperative that we keep ourselves close as a nation and not argue over petty differences that don’t matter. The argument the left has today will ultimately lead to so much disaster that in the next generation, the electorate will overwhelmingly vote right, so why even entertain them? It is your brethren who come first and no other human being gets better treatment, definitely not terrorists.
It is time for common sense to rule, and who knows? By implementing the death penalty, we will be bringing ourselves closer to the day where we will be able to rule our nation with integrity according to the laws of old. We will all learn to grow as a family with different stripes and colors with one strong and unshakable belief. And just as we all felt the same heart-wrenching pain of our brothers and sisters in captivity, we will all feel the same love toward one another in good times. We don’t need tragedy to bring us together; we can unite as one to protect and defend each other as a family.
Every Jew, with true faith in the God above, will acknowledge their individual strengths and weaknesses and pursue avenues of life that match their personalities. One will choose to go to war and another to business, one to Torah and another to technology. With an understanding of purpose and meaning of life, we will all work together to bring about the day we are all longing for. We will live united as a family who recognizes the sacrifices made by our fathers over the last three thousand years, and understand that the only reason we consider ourselves Jews today is because our parents and theirs have kept their belief strong throughout their troubles. And even more so, they taught their children and prepared them with the knowledge that they too will most likely suffer under the hands of evil.
And that only with a steadfast belief in God and the observance of His commandments can we endure the greatest hardships and bring about the next generation who will hopefully be the ones to welcome the light of the Messiah. It is the faith that is within us that has been awakened, and as we live with it throughout our lives, it may seem that we fail in reality, but our spirit will forever be victorious. And they will keep on asking themselves, “What is the secret of this nation who simply won’t die?” With hope that one day they stop trying to kill us. Am Yisrael Chai!
David Lemmer is an Orthodox Jewish Writer and Hypnotherapist. He can be reached at LemmerHypno@gmail.com