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Thursday, September 26, 2024
23 Elul 5784
Dear WRT Family,
In the closing verses of this week’s double Torah portion, Nitzavim-Vayelech, Joshua is formally charged as Moses’s successor, to bring the Israelites into the Promised Land.
Anticipating that securing and defending this territory will be risky and daunting, even for a trained warrior, God steels Joshua for the mission:
וַיְצַ֞ו אֶת־יְהוֹשֻׁ֣עַ בִּן־נ֗וּן וַיֹּ֘אמֶר֮ חֲזַ֣ק וֶאֱמָץ֒ כִּ֣י אַתָּ֗ה תָּבִיא֙ אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־נִשְׁבַּ֣עְתִּי לָהֶ֑ם וְאָנֹכִ֖י אֶהְיֶ֥ה עִמָּֽךְ׃
[God] charged Joshua son of Nun: “Be strong and resolute: for you shall bring the Israelites into the land that I promised them on oath, and I will be with you” (Deuteronomy 31:23).
Chazak ve-Ematz: “Be strong and resolute.” These words have been enshrined as a signature Jewish phrase of encouragement and empowerment.
Now is a time for Chazak ve-Ematz. The terrible year-long war launched by Hamas on October 7th appears to be expanding, with Israel using covert intelligence-driven strikes and military force to degrade the capacity of Hezbollah to terrorize and threaten the citizens of Israel’s north, who for months have endured indiscriminate rocket fire from southern Lebanon. Tens of thousands of Israelis have been forced from their homes, and cannot safely return so long as Hezbollah continues to violate Israel’s borders.
While this next phase of what is increasingly looking like a regional war between Israel and Iranian-backed proxies is more controversial in Israeli society, still a majority of Israelis believe that force is warranted because Israel’s sovereign integrity is at stake.
The situation is terribly complicated, not least by the significant level of mistrust that Israelis feel about their governing coalition. These are, for all of us, painful and anxious times with no easy answers.
It is impossible for anyone outside the “situation room” to know everyone’s motivations and considerations--political, strategic, and moral. All we can do, as participants in the Jewish tradition, is to insist that just wars are to be fought justly, with the utmost sensitivity to noncombatant human life, in keeping with the vision and values of Judaism, the Jewish State, and the moral code of the IDF known as Tohar Ha-Neshek (“Purity of Arms.”)
Let us all join with our Israeli family in a spirit of Chazak ve-Ematz, offering our message of solidarity and courage for this precarious moment, especially in light of the worrisome possibility of a much-protracted and difficult war to come.
Am Yisrael Chai,
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