Part V: Postpone Until Purim

In answer to the question, “How goeth the battle?” an acceptable answer is impossible. Winning and losing have no meaning; not because “war is hell” and “no one is ever right or wrong” in war but because the answer is a paradox.

When your enemies seek your complete destruction, extermination, the final chapter whose opening act is the Shoah, being alive is the victory. Yet, when your enemies – and their enablers – are like hordes that replenish their forces, feed off the power of death – their own, yours, and those of your loved ones – what does winning look like?

If we declare victory, we might also become complacent.

That is why the example of King Saul, who neither founded Jerusalem nor built the Temple – despite his awesome stature – is instructive.

King Saul had the opportunity to destroy Amalek, the people that attacked the most vulnerable: the elderly, the children, and the infirm who traveled in the rear during the exodus from Egypt before the splitting of the Sea of Reeds.

Either due to misplaced pity, arrogance, or a fear of regicide, he spared Amalek. The prophet Samuel, whose birth we mark on Rosh Hashana, ripped the monarchy from Saul and anointed David.

Let us revisit the matter at Purim. Purim marks the Jewish people’s commitment to eradicating evil, a requirement for the achievement of the good. Assessing whether we are winning or losing is of little importance right now; completing the task is what matters. The Israelis win the wars. We, in the Diaspora, have the task of winning the peace. Go forth: be strong and courageous.