“Moses assembled the entire congregation of the Children of Israel and said to them: These are the things that Hashem has commanded, to do them.” (35:1)
If wars are good for anything, it’s this:
A war brings out in people what Londoners in the second world war called – ‘the Blitz Spirit.’ A spirit of shared hardship. Wars either bring out the worst in people – or the best. In the current war against Iran, we see the internecine strife in the Land of Israel - religious versus secular, Right versus Left - replaced by a spirit of unity and brotherhood (however brief this may be.)
But let us not delude ourselves: unity in itself has no over-arching value. Unity is only valuable if it leads to the strengthening of Torah and its values.
Our Sages teach: Great is Peace, for it was placed in the portion of the Righteous; great is peace for it was not placed in the portion of the Evil. (Yalkut Nasso)
When Moshe assembled the entire congregation of the Children of Israel in a unified gathering, the first thing he said to them was: “These are the things that Hashem has commanded, to do them.”
Unity and community only have value when they lead to doing the mitzvot – the Will of Hashem.
Let us hope and pray that the current unity in the Land of Israel will lead to a greater awareness that all our miraculous success, in this and all the wars that the State has fought, have nothing to do with our superior fire-power, or brain-power, but are because the God of Israel fights for His People – and we merit that protection in proportion to our fulfilling His Will.
