Since the beginning of the war against Hamas in response to their barbarous attack against Israel, we have heard the cry that old and faulty conceptions must be changed. From the war of the Maccabees against Greece we can learn what some of these new conceptions must be. After all, every Jew celebrates Hanukah, whether religious or secular, rightest or leftist. The Maccabees are our national heroes. So let’s follow their ways! What was their cry to the nation? “Everyone after Hashem and His Torah, follow me!”
We have all seen stories in the media how soldiers are requesting to receive tzitzit as part of their battle gear. That’s a good start, but it is not certainly not enough. Wouldn’t it be nice to see the three leaders of our war cabinet don kippot and tzitzit as well? In addition, ending speeches to the nation with a passing “bezrat Hashem” is hardly a change of conception. Rather each speech should begin with the acknowledgement that Hashem is our true leader and that victory lies with Hashem via His blessing to the military prowess which He has bequeathed to the reborn Jewish State.
News broadcasts on television should emulate this example. Women should dress modestly and every studio background should display a wall-to-wall sign reading “Shema Yisrael…” And every broadcast should begin with a dvar Torah to remind viewers that Hashem is the Master of the news and not media journalists.
The Greeks endeavored to sever our ties to Hashem. They banned the performance of mitzvot and Torah study and forced Jews to proclaim “We have no connection to the G-d of Israel.” Just as the Maccabees fought against this heresy, we must erase this conception today and struggle valorously for the honor of our Torah and for its practice throughout our Land. Modern-day Hellenism must be erased. Just as the Jews fought against the dominance of Greek culture we must replace the perverted norms and fashions of Europe and America, liberalism, progressivism, and pseudo-universalism with true Jewish culture. We must give up the philosophies and gods of the West and turn away from their pursuit of immorality and sexual licentiousness. For example, to safeguard the holy purity of the Jewish Nation, just as the Maccabees re-sanctified the Beit HaMikdash polluted by the Greeks, geniuses of hi-tech and Rafael must work to develop an “Iron Dome” system that prevents pornography from entering our air space and the Jewish home and pocket of every teenager. Similarly, no longer will the Israeli police sanction homosexual parades and nature parties with giant models of Buddha. Certainly, these errant souls mustn’t be castigated for their misdoings for they are like children who were taken captive by the gentiles and led astray by the temptations of the modern-day Hellenism fostered by the enemies of Hashem and a cult of international elitists who lust after money and power, hoping, like the Greeks, to erase Hashem from the world.
Certainly, these false and tragic conceptions cannot be replaced by coercion. Rather a new national program of religious Zionist education must be established for both the religious and secular publics, along with sweeping judicial reform. This national tikun will take time but the process must begin before our wanton behavior brings about another bout of Divine warning and displeasure, Heaven forbid.
Only this spiritual revamping will lead to true conceptual change. Perhaps this is the spiritual overhaul promised by Hashem, the “new heart of flesh” and the “new light on Zion” envisioned by the prophets of Israel. This is the path to the desperately needed unity of the nation. But this unity cannot come to pass without the mass Aliyah of all Jews to the Chosen Land. The unity of the nation cannot be achieved while millions of Jews are still scattered all over the world. In Israel we are one nation – not outside of it where we are like the dry scattered bones of Ezekiel’s prophecy waiting to be resurrected to life. The erroneous conception that Jewish life is acceptable in gentile lands must undergo a total revision. As Jabotinsky warned decades ago, we must liquidate the exile before the exile liquidates us. Beyond any doubt, the Master of the World is using the war in Aza to awaken the Jews around the world to the inescapable fact that they are hated and unwanted minorities, as history has proven again and again. Changing the heads of a few college presidents in America won’t change a thing. The exploding anti-Semitism isn’t something that can be cured with a band aid. There is no future for Jews outside the Land of Israel. Without mass aliyah the ever-increasing assimilation will eradicate the Diaspora and Tzahal won’t be able to help the remaining religious strongholds when crazed anti-Semites attack.
Finally, as the Rambam emphasizes, the Maccabees fought to restore Jewish sovereignty over Eretz Yisrael. Today, as an outcome of the war, Hashem has returned the armies of Israel to rule over Aza. In the near future, we may find ourselves the new rulers of Beirut. Syria, Jordan, and the Sinai are ours as well. And just as the Six Day War re-established our control over Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, so too this war will hopefully lead Israel to change its faulty conception regarding “the territories” and bring Jewish sovereignty to all of Yesha. The erroneous conception that the never-ending conflict with the Arabs is due to the presence of Jewish settlements in Yesha must be blotted out of existence and replaced with the understanding that without Jewish settlement the entire “West Bank” would have turned into another Aza long ago. The solution? Expand Jewish settlement and invite the Arabs to relocate to Saudi Arabia or America, the great humanitarian nation which so loves the children of Ishmael.
Certainly the sweeping change will not be easy. But, “If will it, it is not a dream.”
