The current situation is a difficult time for the tzibbur, there’s a war in Eretz Yisrael, a war in your country, and besides for the war, I heard that our enemies perpetrated tragedies in the center of the country. We need a lot of rachamei Shamayim to be saved from the dangers, and the merit of Torah is surely the greatest thing, because Torah saves us.
The Gemara (Sanhedrin 98b) discusses chevlei mashiach, the birth pangs of Mashiach, which is a very difficult tekufah. They said, what should a person do to be saved from chevlei mashiach? The eitzah they gave was: Be osek baTorah and gemillus chassadim, Torah and chesed.
And what is chesed? Chesed does not mean just someone who has a gemach and gives out loans. Chesed also means to make another person happy and content — both adults and children, all ages — that’s called chesed. Everyone can give another person a good feeling, smile at him kindly, speak pleasantly to him, ask how he’s feeling. Helping someone else with his learning is also chesed. If one person understands better than his friend and explains it to him, the second person is like his student, and Chazal said (Taanis 7a), “[I learned] from my students more than anyone else.” Someone who teaches others and explains the learning to someone who needs help, this is a tremendous merit for hatzlachah, more than anything else. And along with this, of course we need tefillah, rachmei shamayim, and tefillos.
But l’maaseh, what helps the most is esek haTorah, because “Torah magna u’matzlah, Torah protects and saves us” (Sotah 21a), and this offers the most protection. The pasuk states, “Our feet were standing in Your gates Yerushalayim,” and the Gemara explains (Makkos 10a), “Who caused our feet to stand upright in war? The gates of Yerushalayim, which means Klal Yisrael was osek baTorah, and esek haTorah gave the army the necessary zechuyos to be victorious in battle.
If so, we are soldiers, the most elite soldiers, and it’s in our merit that they’re winning the war. In your zechus, in the zechus of being osek baTorah, soldiers are winning the war. This is something that even secular Jews understand, even though they’re irreligious, because they have emunah. They want us, they’re asking us, to learn Torah — those of them who aren’t embarrassed. Of course, some of them are embarrassed to request it straight out, but in their hearts, they want it, and we are soldiers, we are Hashem’s army!
Therefore, we are actually duty-bound to be Hashem’s army, to be loyal soldiers to the King, the King of all kings, HaKadosh Baruch Hu. We must be loyal to do whatever the King demands of us, and the King does not make demands of us that we are incapable of carrying out. He only asks us to do what we are capable of, to be osek baTorah, Toras Hashem.
Additionally, it’s very important to know that when it comes to strengthening our emunah, while we are all maaminim bnei maaminim, our emunah must be active and practical. We see that during a time of suffering, even secular Israelis strengthen their emunah and try to do whatever they know, whatever mitzvos they are familiar with, to protect themselves from the tzaros. We are presently living in a time of tzaros rabbim, communal suffering, many of our Jewish brothers are in danger and live in constant fear of death. Soldiers in the army are suffering and frightened, and so are their parents, everyone’s afraid.
If we would think a little, it should be something that disturbs us, it should cause us pain. It’s not simple, but if we’d give it some thought, if a person would spend some time thinking how the soldiers feel, and how terrified their parents are, he would start worrying about them a little. And if you worry and care about them, you will immediately strengthen your Torah and tefillah and distance yourself from anything against the Torah. It’s in our hands to be shakuah, immersed, in Torah, to distance ourselves from all other things that are against the Torah. It’s not hard, just the beginnings are hard, but afterwards, it becomes easy and very pleasant! And b’ezras Hashem, everyone should be blessed with all the brachos in the Torah, for many happy, healthy years.
From a sichah delivered in Yeshivas Orchos Yehudah in Elad during the war in Southern Israel, 5773 (2013).
