HaRav HaNazir, ZT”L-: The Scroll Of War And Peace

HA’RAV HANAZIR ZT’L: THE SCROLL OF WAR AND PEACE   

“In these great and difficult days, the days of the birth pangs of the Messiah, the birth of the kingdom of Israel, when our enemies have arisen against us to destroy us -– Tzur [Tyre, Lebanon] and Damascus [Syria], Ammon [Amman, Jordan] and Moab [Jordan, East of Dead Sea] and Egypt -– and at their head are Amalek and Edom, who have put in their hands many powerful tools of slaughter to terrorize and slaughter. But HaShem did not permit them [in our past history] to carry out their wickedness. The many fell into the hand of the few, and the evildoers into the hand of the righteous ones, and they fled in panic, with an eternal curse on their heads. Who has not had his eyes opened to see in these [events] the Hand of God, the Rock of Israel and its Redeemer?”

Rabbi David Cohen Z”L, Rav Kook’s main student, wrote these words in a letter to his Mercaz HaRav yeshiva students on Nissan 25 1948 ten days before the ‘Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel’  on the 5’th of Iyar (May 14). The students had left the yeshiva with his blessing to be soldiers in the newly forming Army of Israel. Seventy six years later these words continue to ring true as Israel is in the midst of another battle in this very long war.

Israel is currently experiencing its greatest assault since the 1948 War of Independence.

These are extremely difficult days. The loss of lives is very painful. Daily funerals. Many mourners. Over 100,00 evacuees. The very real possibility that a much larger conflict with Hezbollah and Iran will break out. The multiple challenges that Tzvah haHaganah LeYisrael-The Israel Defense Forces are dealing with are enormous.

The Kingdom of Israel began around 1100 BCE. The other Biblical nations that the Nazir names above as the progenitors of our current enemies were in their glory then as well. The nations surrounding Israel were at unrelenting war with Judah/Israel then and their modern equivalents are at war with Israel now. A 3,124 year (approximately) war.

The Nazir ZT’L names Amalek as the head of the forces attacking Israel. The Amalekites were the first people to attack Israel when they left Egypt for the Promised Land (Exodus 17:8). In Deuteronomy 25:17–19, the Israelites are specifically commanded to “erase the memory of Amalek from under the heavens” “when God gives you peace from all the enemies around you in the land that God your Lord is giving you to as your inheritance.”

The actual identity of Amalek is an ongoing Jewish discussion with most claiming that we cannot identify Amalek with any current people or nation. “Erase the memory of Amalek from under the heavens” (Deut. 25:19)  is commonly understood as physically exterminating Amalek. But since we cannot absolutely identify Amalek, we (fortunately) do not feel the religious obligation to go out and kill anybody.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that lots of people want to kill us.

The hate, ideology and actions of Amalek are deeply embedded in certain parts of human civilization and are wreaking an ongoing destruction on masses of innocent people. It is very clear that a very powerful warring energy of hatred has been directed at the Children of Israel throughout history. It is also very clear that the culture of war that Amalek represents has taken over the entire planet. The spirit of Amalek lives and thrives. Israel is its primary target and the Nation and army of Israel must defend themselves against their attacks with every possible means.

In the aftermath of the Holocaust and during the brutal battles of the 1948 Israel War of Independence, HaRav HaNazir ZT”L was moved to write a document that he called “The Scroll of War and Peace”.

It was finally published during the throes of the Yom Kippur War. It is a remarkable and largely unknown document. I will share a few relevant portions from it.

It begins by quoting three sources:

“War is also the beginning of redemption! (Megilla 17b)

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Our rabbis say:

How great is the power of ‘shalom-peace’. Even in war, which a person enters with only swords and lances, the Holy One says: When you go to make war, you must begin it with a call for peace.

From where (do we see this)? From Deuteronomy 20:10:

‘When you approach a city to fight her, and call out peace to her…’  (Dvarim Rabba: 5:12)

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Rabbi Ishmael used to say:  

“The Children of Ishmael are destined to make three tumultuous wars in the End of Days; as it says: “For they have fled before the swords, before the outstretched sword” (Isaiah 21:15); one in the ocean…one in the dry land…and one in the large city [Jerusalem]…and the Son of David will then blossom, and will see the [Ishmaelite] loss of each of these. From there he will come to Eretz Israel.” (Yalkut Shimoni; Isaiah 42:1)

This Midrash suggests that battles initiated by Yishmael will be a central part of the return of the Children of Israel to the Land of Israel.

The scroll continues with the Nazir’s own writing under the heading of  “WAR AND PEACE”. (Please note that the underlined and capitalized words were emphasized in the original text.)

1) “War is a CRIME of mass murder. All the construction that living nations are engaged in, their power and essence, is ROOTED IN WAR. There has not been a generation that has not experienced small or large wars. And when one war ends, preparations immediately begin for the next one.

This is the way it always was, and this is the way it currently is, from generation to generation.

ls this also the way it always will be?

How can we take pride in any RIGHTEOUSNESS AND GOODNESS when the foundation of everything is mass murder and great wars?

How can any human being be content with their level of personal and general ethics while he and and the whole world is being led towards slaughter?

No, do not do this, DO NOT MURDER– this needs to be humanity’s absolute resolution, its absolute imperative!

This is not easy. All the relations between nations express some degree of conquerors and conquered. The powerful ones dominate and enforce their will through their armies, more advanced weapons of war, and storehouses of AMMUNITION. They fight  to control and subdue while the weaker ones gird themselves for opposition, defense and freedom.

Oy! ‘Shalom, Shalom’ is in the mouth of all.

And yet in reality there is only war, subjugation, and power. The mighty control through their strength, weapons and armies. They openly educate their population every single day in the ways of war, murder and bloodshed. This is done with the agreement of all humankind.

2) War is the great plague of humankind in our generation and in all generations. Mass MURDER has killed many multitudes  of souls, often the best of humankind. It leaves many  sick and wounded human beings with life-long handicaps. It destroys cultural creations, beautiful buildings and elevated institutions of literature and art.  And whoever continues to kill, murder and annihilate is considered THE VICTOR, THE SUCCESSFUL, THE PRAISEWORTHY.

And from the day that a SO-CALLED PEACE treaty is established, preparations for war begin again. The wounded heal, the ruins are rebuilt, and food is stored while the nations strengthen their  infrastructure for creating and storing more weapons of war and larger treasuries of money. This is done until they are once again ready to fulfill THE COMMANDMENT OF WAR FOR THE SAKE OF MURDER, KILLING AND RUINATION  in order to destroy humankind.” (p. 11-12)

The history of the world is the history of war.

A sizable percentage if not the majority of human resources have been and are committed to war. There are currently 5 wars in the world in which more than ten thousand people a year are killed. There are 16  wars in which one to ten thousand people a year are killed. There are 18 conflicts in which one hundred to one thousand people are killed yearly.(2)

In Chapter 2, the Nazir continues to describe the planetary immersion in war:

“There is national agreement that enables the slaughter of animals and chickens and the eating of their flesh.

So too there is a general agreement to allow mass murder and the theft of the property of the murdered.

Every  nation has ministers of war, armies and supplies of weapons. Even worse than this is that WAR IS ACCOMPANIED BY HATRED. It needs hatred in order to grow and strengthen. People are taught and constantly reminded to hate, to hate the enemy, ‘remember what Amalek did to you!’ (Deuteronomy, 25:17)” (p.13)

This is an extraordinarily relevant drash. Normally this verse in Deuteronomy is connected with the commandment to recount the Amalek story. We practice this yearly on Purim by reading the Torah account of  Amalek’s attack shortly before we re-read in the Scroll of Esther of the attempted extermination by Amalek’s descendant Haman in 356 BCE.

The Nazir however is using it poetically to depict the ongoing and varying societal efforts to identify and demonize an enemy. The historical examples of this are endless. All over the planet human beings are defined and bound together by their common identification of an ‘other’ as ‘the enemy’- “Remember what Amalek did to you!”

Almost every nation (except perhaps for Canada), has their ‘Amalek’. Huge human and material resources are dedicated to continuing the battle against the identified Amalek.

What are we to do?

Let us return to the Nazir:

“The call has to go out to the nations, to the masses and their leadership through  essays and books, to awaken THE PEACE MOVEMENT in absolute opposition to mass murder, to war.

The leaders of all the nations, their ministers, advisors and parliaments must legislate that the law  ‘Do not murder‘ includes the prohibition of the mass murder of war. They must forbid war, not declare it…

Each human being, each writer and thinker is commanded: “Do not stand idly by as your neighbor’s blood [is being spilled]” (Leviticus 19:16). (pages 12-13

Let us call out with all strength to the destroyer: STOP!

No!  ‘Do Not Murder’ (Exodus 20:13/Deuteronomy 5:17), do not go out to war, to commit mass murder, “nation shall not lift up sword against any other nation and they will no longer learn war”. (Isaiah 2:)” (p.12-13)

“Erase the memory of Amalek from under the heavens.” (Deut. 25:19)

And as Rav Kook ZT’L wrote while he was in Europe during WW1:

“The harmonic call…the voice of peace is much greater than the voices of war that are heard from all the places of emptiness…

Among all the calls of the world, the supernal call, the call that unites, raises and equalizes must go forth and penetrate . From the fullness of life, this call must go forth to every creature, to every  spirit and soul, to the inside of every being, to every  individual, to every group and to every nation.

Inside the unifying souls, who are drenched in the dew of life of the harmonic call, is burning a holy fire that is thirsty for peace. These are the angels of peace in the world.” (Notebook 5:20, Lights of Holiness 4:493)

In this horrible time of war-in this epoch of world wars-may we be blessed to hear and truly manifest the call of shalom everywhere.

—————————————————————————————————————[Note- the square brackets contain my  comments/clarifications within the quote.]

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