Transcript

The Rambam writes at the end of Perek Zayin of Hilchos Melachim: מאחר שיכנס אדם בקשרי המלחמה. When a person enters into active combat, ישען על מקוה ישראל ומושיעו בעת צרה. He should literally lean upon, rely upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the hope of Yisrael and their savior be-eis tzarah, וידע שעל יחוד השם הוא עושה מלחמה. The Rambam tells us that it’s again, it’s simultaneously, as it were, a political military assessment and lehavdil a halachic assessment that what’s contested in the milchamah is not territory, is not land. What’s being contested is yichud Hashem and the chayalim are waging war al yichud Hashem. He follows up several lines later,

וכל הנלחם בכל לבו בלא פחד ותהיה כוונתו לקדש שם שמים בלבד.

Again, it’s a context of kiddush Hashem. So what the Rambam says here reflects a historical framework that he elaborates in Iggeres Teiman. In Iggeres Teiman there was a shmad against the Jews in Teiman and the Rambam was writing to be mechazeik them. So maybe we'll just read a few lines together. De-u, the Rambam says, know,

שזו היא תורת השם האמתית שנתנה לנו על ידי אדון כל הנביאים הראשונים והאחרונים, שבתורה הזאת הבדילנו הבורא משאר בני העולם.

In giving us the Torah, Hakadosh Baruch Hu differentiated us from the rest of humanity,

שנאמר רק באבותיך חשק השם לאהבה אותם ויבחר בזרעם אחריהם בכם מכל העמים כיום הזה.

The Torah was given as part of, as the bris of bechiras Yisrael. Ve-ein zeh, says the Rambam, לפי שהיינו ראויים לכך, it wasn't in our own merit, אלא בחסדו של הבורא וטובו שהתחסד עלינו והטיב לנו, it was a chesed from Hakadosh Baruch Hu and what elicited that chesed, as it were, בשביל שקדמו לאבותינו מעשים טובים בידיעת הבורא ובעבודתו, because of the avos,

שנאמר לא מרבכם מכל העמים חשק השם בכם וגו׳, כי מאהבת השם אתכם ומשמר השבועה שנשבע לאבותיכם וגו׳, ומפני שיחד אותנו הבורא במצותיו ובחוקותיו,

and because Hakadosh Baruch Hu made us unique, special, through giving us His mitzvos, והתבארה מעלתנו על זולתנו בהלכותיו ובמשפטיו, and that distinction is expressed again. Through the Torah that we have, that we live by, shenemar

ומי גוי גדול אשר לו חוקים ומשפטים צדיקים ככל התורה הזאת אשר אנכי נותן לפניכם היום.

Right? The Torah asks rhetorically, where is there another nation that lives by a code which can compare to that of the Torah? As a result of that, says the Rambam, קנאונו הגוים כולם על דתנו קנאה גדולה. The nations of the world are intensely jealous of us because of the Torah. וילחצו מלכיהם בשבילה לעורר עלינו שטנה ואיבה, and there's been a constant provocation to arouse enmity and hatred towards us. And in reality, and here let's pay very, very careful attention, rabosai, veratzonam lehilachem baShem. Their true desire in rejecting bechiras Yisrael is really that that's waging war with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. veratzonam lehilachem baShem ולעשות מריבה עמו. However, והוא אלוקים ומי יערב לו. So they wage war; their war against Hakadosh Baruch Hu, in their war against Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they target us.

ואין לך זמן מאז שניתנה לנו תורה זו עד זמננו זה.

There isn't, there hasn't been a hiatus since Mattan Torah until the mid 12th century, and again, that's only the cutoff point because that's what the Rambam is talking about, but he would update it if he were here today.

ואין לך זמן מאז שניתנה לנו תורה זו עד זמננו זה שכל מלך עובד עבודה זרה גובר ומכריח ומתגבר או אונס.

Any powerful מלך עובד עבודה זרה, without exception, שאין תחילת כוונתו ודעתו לסתור תורתנו ולהפוך דתנו באונס, to try to annul the Torah, to try to overturn through force our religion, benitzachon uvacherev. And then the Rambam begins listing kemo עמלק וסיסרא וסנחריב ונבוכדנצר וטיטוס ואדריאנוס והרבה כיוצא בהם. That's what's reflected in Hilchos Melachim when the Rambam says that שידע שעל ייחוד השם הוא עושה מלחמה, because the hatred for us is a rebellion against Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The hatred for us is a challenge to Hakadosh Baruch Hu's sovereignty over the world, to Hakadosh Baruch Hu's prerogative of bechirah. It's a rejection of yichud Hashem. And the Rambam says don't be misled by how it's packaged, how it's camouflaged. It's got nothing to do with Al-Aqsa Mosque, it's got nothing to do with territory. They weren't interested in Al-Aqsa Mosque when it was under the British and under the Turkish. They didn't discover it until it was under in Jewish sovereignty. Rambam says don't be misled by that, that veratzonam lehilachem baShem. They're waging war against Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and that's when he says lehalacha in Hilchos Melachim that a chayal should know that שידע שעל ייחוד השם הוא עושה מלחמה, hu oseh milchamah. And he's engaged in an act of kiddush Hashem. Be'emes is that this historical scheme of the Rambam is the focus of the kapittel we've been saying this week, kapittel pei-gimmel. אלהים אל דמי לך אל תחרש ואל תשקט אל, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, don't be silent. כי הנה אויביך יהמיון, your enemies are making a big commotion, umesanecha nasu rosh, those who hate you Hakadosh Baruch Hu are taking the lead. And and how is their enmity towards you Hakadosh Baruch Hu expressed? Oyvecha, אלהים אל דמי לך, oyvecha, how is their enmity towards you? How is their hatred, mesanecha, how is their hatred towards you expressed? על עמך יערימו סוד. They're plotting against your people. אמרו לכו ונכחידם מגוי ולא יזכר שם ישראל עוד. So that's a merida against Hakadosh Baruch Hu and that's what it is and that's what it always has been and that's what it continues to be. Every chayal who who has been killed has been killed al kiddush Hashem because the milchama is al yichud Hashem. It's got nothing to do with land, nothing to do with anything else. It's about Malchus Shamayim. And for that matter, even Rachmana litzlan in the piguim, not the or the civilians who were massacred, every Jew living in Eretz Yisrael knows that there's a target on his or her back. Every Jew knows that. Every Jew knows that that it's a target drawn by Hamas, Hezbollah, the Jihadists and and they are moser nefesh to live there with that awareness. And if that mesirus nefesh ends up translating into that willingness to be moser nefesh results in actual mesirus nefesh, they also die al kiddush Hashem. Because they're knowingly, by staking our claim, Eretz Yisrael was given to us as part of bechiras Yisrael. And there too, the holding onto Eretz Yisrael is is standing up for yichud Hashem. The knowledge that those who were killed and killed with savagery that matches and arguably surpasses that of the Nazis yemach shemam, the knowledge that they died al kiddush Hashem in no way diminishes the grief, the pain or the tragedy and and that's for two reasons. It doesn't diminish it an iota and for two reasons. First of all, on a human level, everyone killed and overwhelmingly they were young people, young people. Not only the chayalim, the ones who were massacred on Shmini Atzeres, overwhelmingly young. It means that the parents who are shkulim, sometimes they're young parents, which means that the children who are orphaned and the Torah recognizes that we're human and and that's what bechi is about in context of aveilus and and validates and and requires the human reaction. So the the knowledge that those killed were killed al Kiddush Hashem it doesn't diminish the the grief, the pain, the suffering. So that's first on the human level. But it's also true on on a religious level because while unquestionably they died al Kiddush Hashem, simultaneously the Hakadosh Baruch Hu's people that nishpach damam kamayim. And in some cases because of the brutality and the savagery, unfortunately it's literally true that ein kover. That Jews are subjected to that fate is also a chillul Hashem. They're being mekayeim the mitzvah of Kiddush Hashem but the fact, the fact of that happening, what they are mekadeish Shem Shamayim, but the fact that that happens is a chillul Hashem. Mizmor l'Asaph, Kapitol Ayin-Tes:

אלקים באו גוים בנחלתך טמאו את היכל קדשך שמו את ירושלים לעיים נתנו את נבלת עבדיך מאכל לעוף השמים בשר חסידיך לחיתו ארץ שפכו דמם כמים סביבות ירושלים ואין קובר היינו חרפה לשכנינו לעג וקלס לסביבותינו.

So religiously also the awareness that they're all mekadeish Shem Shamayim doesn't lessen the the grief, the anguish, the pain because the fact, again the fact is not their responsibility, it's individual responsibility, it's our collective responsibility, the fact of of such an occurrence is a chillul Hashem. In terms of our reaction and our avodah, maybe one one thing which is suggested by by this perspective is that not to the exclusion of so many other things that we should and need to be doing, but maybe we should be particularly conscious and sensitive in our behavior of looking to make a Kiddush Hashem. That the Kiddush Hashem shouldn't have to be a Kiddush Hashem whose flip side is chillul Hashem, but the Kiddush Hashem shouldn't have to be with the loss of precious lives. And maybe that's something that we should be, obviously, what we should always be focused on, but maybe with a heightened sensitivity, maybe that's part of our reaction and our avodah to, through our behavior, through our conduct, through our interaction, especially klapei chutz, to elicit a reaction of

אשרי אביו שלמדו תורה אשרי רבו שלמדו תורה ישראל אשר בך אתפאר.