I’ve been writing these past few weeks on the massacre in Har Nof. We have yet to fully explore the messages we can glean from that tragedy.
“Oh no, not Har Nof again” some of you might be protesting. “How many times do we have to read about this? Rebbetzin, it’s enough.”
I’m still writing about Har Nof for the simple reason that my conscience does not allow me to remain silent.
As most of you know, I’m a child of the Holocaust – another subject that many people – even many Jews – are tired of hearing about.
I remember once researching Jewish newspapers from those ominous pre-Holocaust days in Europe. To my dismay I discovered the pages were filled with all kinds of trivia – gossip as well as meaningless and silly local news items. Not much if anything, however, about the gathering storm that soon would engulf the Jewish people.
I do not want to be guilty of the same mistake. I love my people too much to remain silent in this time of crisis.
Prior to the Har Nof massacre there had been renewed strife over Har Habayit, the Temple Mount. Officials of the Palestinian Authority proclaimed that while Jews would be permitted to come near, they would not be allowed to pray there. Now, why should it bother them if we pray? And, mind you, it wasn’t as if they were referring to Jews building a synagogue or even holding a minyan there.
What is it about our prayers that evokes such ire in our enemies? Do they really believe Jewish prayers can overcome missiles and other deadly weapons? On the surface it seems the answer would be a resounding “no.” But let me tell you a little secret: Even those who reject our beliefs, and who claim that theirs is the true religion, know in the depths of their souls that the power of the Jews is to be found in our faith and in our prayers.
Interestingly, the Torah portion for the week during which the Har Nof atrocity occurred was Toldos, in which our father Isaac proclaimed, “The voice is the voice of Jacob [Israel] and the hands are the hands of Esau.” Meaning that the power of the Jewish people is to be found in their voice – prayer –while the strength of the nations is to be found in their weapons.
Somehow over the centuries we came to forget the source of our power.
Many years ago I was speaking on Israeli radio and said that the word tillim – Hebrew for missiles – should be accompanied by the word Tehillim (Psalms) because the missiles of a Jewish army can only be as powerful as the prayers that accompany them.
Just as Jewish soldiers have to be trained to fight with weapons, they also must be trained to fight with the invisible but potent weapon of prayer. Even as armies need to hold military exercises if they are to acquire and maintain expertise in warfare, so too must a Jewish army introduce spiritual exercises that emanate from the heart.
We must forever bear in mind that our fight for survival can only be successful if our weapons are accompanied by Tehillim, by prayer. Yes, Hashem has enabled us to develop and possess weapons – but at the same time we must remember that our missiles, our tanks, our planes are only as powerful as G-d will allow them to be. Our strength, our might, can only come from the G-d of Israel.
When Jacob our patriarch was ill and knew his days were few and numbered, he gathered his children and imparted to them his last will and testament. When it came to conquering the land of Israel he referred to “the land I took from the hands of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.” What were his sword and bow? The Torah teaches us they were prayers – prayers that were powerful weapons, for therein is found the real strength of Am Yisrael.