Lets Not Be Suicidal Again

While we prefer to see ourselves as victims, it’s well-known that we Jews have a talent for self-destruction. Read through our history to see how we repeatedly mess ourselves up.

In case you’re not a Jewish history nerd, here are a few examples.

1. Adam and Eve. Okay, they weren’t Jews. But they were our ancestors, and they messed up royally.
2. Joseph and his bros- the Jewish equivalent of original sin and the reason why we were enslaved in Egypt
3. The Golden Calf–that nearly ended it between us and G-d. Thank you, Moshe, for patching that up.
4. The spies–their negativity turned the Sinai wanderings from a short hop, skip,and jump into a forty-year shlep.
5. The Zealots, the ultra-nationalist Jews, who burned storage facilities holding enough wheat to last out the Roman siege, which caused the now  desperate Jews, to fight the Romans at a terrible cost.

6,  The Spanish and Portuguese Jews–sadly, the high and mighty who chose conversion over instead hanging tight with their more faithful brothers, most of whom ended up on the stake or as penniless refugees.

7. The Russian Jewish elite who handed the sons of the poor to the Czarist military, destroying their lives spiritually, physically, sometimes both way. Why couldn’t everyone work together to find a better path to escape this horror?

8. World Jewry in Israel, the US, and even in Nazi-occupied Europe who failed to come together to evade, fight or pray away the Nazi scourge.

And here we go again.

Instead of uniting to fight our enemies or more effectively and more Jewishly gathering together to pray them out of existence, we are scratching each other’s eyeballs out.  Over what? That ridiculous canard, the Haredi draft.

According to the most often bandied-about number, the IDF is short 10,000 fighting soldiers. So, how do we fill the gap? Simple: Draft the Haredi yeshiva students. Get them all into uniform, and victory will be ours.

This is delusional. Even if every Haredi on the planet signs up to fight, we are still vastly outnumbered. ( for  the numerical breakdown, see https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/how-to-win-the-war/ )

Our enemies can rely on an endless supply of Jihadist wannabes. It’s incredible how many people want to die for Allah. We aren’t suicidal in that way. We have no such resource, even if we draft all Haredim, Arabs, and even Jews from other countries.

Drafting the Haredim will also weaken us by damaging the spiritual force field our yeshivas provide, which is far more valuable than any soldier or weapon.

Nobody wants this war.

Anyone connected to the IDF will tell you that many soldiers who enthusiastically entered the battle are failing to turn up. After an extended ceasefire, our enemies are well-rested. They have had time to dig more tunnels and booby-trap more buildings. And don’t forget our Egyptian frenemies massing in the Sinai, who are sure to add more flavor to the fun!

No wonder the entire state has its kishkes tied up in a knot.

Are we doomed?

Well no.

We can take out our nukes, but nukes also poison everything in their range, including us. That would be another self-destructive choice in the most literal way..

What we really need to do is to adopt the Jewish solution that is stop hating each other and lean into our true vocation, the one some of our hostages became experts in–prayer.

Let us follow the lead of Moses and Aaron. or Mordechai and Esther gather together to cry out to Hashem. If our hearts are in it, He will deliver us from our enemies.