As they gathered at an army base preparing to enter the Israel Defense Forces, my son, along with thousands of other new draftees, sang songs of Torah, dancing with the joy and passion often reserved for weddings and other celebrations.
The celebration stemmed from marking the beginning of their IDF service, a biblical and moral mandate that they all realize. In addition to the songs, tears and parental blessings, groups of Talmud students soon to become soldiers completed the last lines of various tractates and made siyumim, the celebrations that mark the completion of a tractate of the Talmud. I personally participated in a siyum on the Tractate of Shabbat in one corner of the courtyard and another on the Tractate on Makkot.
One experience could not be separated from the other. Torah and army service. Army service and Torah.
Significantly, this joy also came at a time of war, and on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel and during the Omer. These 49 days no longer just concretely manifest the march from our physical redemption on Passover to the spiritual redemption on Shavuot. These days are overlaid with mourning the students of Rabbi Akiva, warriors of Bar Kochba, who died from a plague because of their lack of respect for each other two millennia ago.
In fact, throughout Jewish history, painful and awful events have been intertwined and inseparable from moments or periods of joy.
This is something we remember, especially during the Omer, when we experience the happiness of preparing to receive the Torah while concurrently mourning the students of Rabbi Akiva, in addition to the destruction of Jewish communities during this period in the era of the Crusades. However, in the modern-day State of Israel, army service can be seen as a sort of antidote to mourning and sadness, bringing comfort and hope amid our remembrance of the Holocaust and reflection on the deaths of Rabbi Akiva’s students and loss of communities during the Crusades. It is this comfort and hope that propel our growth during this period of the Omer and ultimately prepare us for the promised full redemption.
Israel has long been seen as a form of redemption following the horrific suffering and losses of the Holocaust. There is no doubt that the Jewish state has been essential to saving lives and allowing for the rebuilding and continuity of Jewish existence and tradition. This is something I am grateful for daily, especially when I see my grandchildren, descendants of my father (may he live to 120) and my in-laws, who survived the Holocaust, growing up here in freedom.
However, the state comes with its own challenges and responsibilities, including the duty to serve in the army in order to ensure ongoing security. Israel is not just a place of passive refuge but one of active service. This has never been more true than at this moment in the wake of the murderous attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, when we continue to face existential threats.
In such a situation, defending the country is not just a national obligation but a mitzvah, a commandment from the Torah. This is why my son and his fellow soldiers are so passionate about their service; they understand not just its practical and life-saving necessity but its spiritual and moral roots in the Torah. Their service is another step toward redemption, and one they are thankful to take, especially when, for nearly 2,000 years, Jews scattered around the world were unable to defend themselves. Army service allows us to never forget this vulnerability —and to ensure that it never happens again.
Similarly, their army service offers an antidote for the tragedy of Rabbi Akiva’s students. While the students were passionate and dedicated to Torah, the Talmud teaches that they died because they lacked love and respect for one another. It is this moral failure and its consequences that we mourn. So it was especially moving to see the new soldiers, even before they donned their uniforms for the first time, ready to serve with love and respect not only for each other but for all of Israel. It is yet another powerful example of how Torah values inform army service and army service brings those Torah values to life.
Among all the challenges we face as we count the Omer this year, watching these new draftees learn Torah—and sing and dance together before their induction—was an inspiring reminder of the redemption we work towards each day. Their unity stands in stark contrast not just to the past dark days of the Holocaust, but also to the troubling reality today that most of the ultra-Orthodox sector refuses to serve.
Let’s focus on the light so evident from my son and the draftees. It is this light—of togetherness, of commitment, of Torah in action—that will help us move through the Omer from the freedom we marked at Passover toward the receiving of the Torah that we commemorate on Shavuot.
{Reposted from JNS}
