In my last article, from early July, “Giving the Arabs Something to Lose,” I made an attempt to predict what was going to happen if a war began with Hamas. Afterwards, I received compliments that I had done a decent job with my predictions.
Frankly, I don’t know how good a job I did. There were a lot of surprises. Everything in real life proved to be more exaggerated than I had foreseen.
First of all, I could not have predicted the passions this war would raise in me. As a card-carrying fifth-generation American Litvak (all of whose ancestors came from Kovne), I am a fairly calm, passionless person. Yet in this war we discovered a ghoulish enemy that builds terror tunnels with which to engage in mass attacks on Israel, an enemy that revels in the death of its own citizenry. That enemy combines the more horrifying aspects of H.G. Well’s science fiction work The Time Machine with the first frightening movie I ever saw, a 1950’s B-movie called “Invasions from Mars,” and makes them look, by comparison, like “Bambi’s Greatest Adventure.”
We discovered the “Islamic State,” a mutant Sunni-Muslim terror organization that is gobbling up Syria and Iraq, mangling blue-eyed Zoroastrians here and hapless Shiites there, and, like a killer hurricane, becoming stronger as it goes; at first they could not beat the Kurds, and now they can! Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Shiite terrorist organization Hezbollah, in Lebanon, which does whatever it wants in that country without fear of either the UN or the effete Lebanese army, pretty much admitted that he is scared stiff of what he called the “Islamic State Monster,” saying, “Confronting Islamic State is a battle of life and death no less important than fighting the Israeli enemy.”
We are approaching two months since the start of the conflict, and although the Israeli army withdrew, the bombing continues. Hamas has managed to do to me what the Arabs have not managed to do to me in the 34 years that I have been in Israel, and that is to make me angry. Something tells me that isn’t good, but I’m not sure.
That said, can I predict what will happen next? Can I predict what Hamas will do? What the Israeli security cabinet will actually decide? Frankly, right now I can’t tell you what is going to happen tomorrow. Will the most recent “ceasefire” hold? Where will the Islamic State attack next? Lebanon? Jordan? Somewhere else? What will be with Hamas? Their aim is improving!
What should Israel do now? Israel has the physical ability to beat Hamas speedily by cutting off their water, food, and electricity totally. Israel can put Gaza under siege, without bombing them, without sending in soldiers, without doing a thing – Leftist international lawyers be damned! And then we can wait calmly for the white flags to go up. We did it in Beirut in 1982, and the result was Arafat fleeing to Tunis. Why can’t Hamas go to Tunis in their place? In Lebanon, we lost a lot of soldiers fighting their way north to get up to Beirut. Here, we’ve got them surrounded already, from the land and from the sea! Is such a possibility in the cards?
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Actually, I do have access to information about the future. When we in Kiryat Arba want to read what is going to happen in the future, we open the book Ma’ayanei HaYeshua of Rav Yaakov Moshe Charlap, zt”l, (1882-1951), who lived his entire life in the Land of Israel and never left it. Rav Charlop’s words are chillingly prophetic. In every war over the past 30 years, there has been an essay by Rav Charlop that was precisely relevant to current events.
Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook – Palestine’s first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva of Jerusalem’s HaMercaz HaOlami, today called “Mercaz HaRav Kook” – had many great disciples, but his three greatest students were 1) his son, Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook, 2) Rav David HaKohen, also known as “the Nazir” (he was one), and 3) Rav Charlop.
In 1935, when Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook was on his deathbed, everyone involved with his yeshiva was wondering who would be chosen to take over for him as the rosh yeshiva of his yeshiva. There was no one in the room but his son, Rav Tzvi Yehuda. Rav Kook’s last words to his son were uttered in a whisper, and they were two words: “Yaakov Moshe.” Based on that whisper, Rav Tzvi Yehuda left the room and announced that Rav Charlop had been chosen to be the new Rosh Yeshiva. He served in that position for 16 years, until 1951, when he passed away and Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook took over.
Like Rav Kook himself, Rav Charlop was a genius in Gemara and in Kabbalah, and he had a weekly kabbalah chavruta with the Beit Yisrael, Rabbi Yisrael Alter, the fourth Gerrer Rebbe. The things that Rav Charlop writes are often disturbing, but to ignore them is to look for the keys under the street lamp instead of where they really are.
Following is my tentative translation of chapter 50 from Ma’ayanei HaYeshua. In a few words, Rav Charlop sums up what is really important.
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The Revolt of the Nations against Israel
The root of the nations’ revolt against Israel is their resentment over Israel’s serving G-d through life. The nations, by contrast, proudly claim that the main service of G-d is to skip over the life of this world and to die for the sake of His name. This is the secret behind the fact that every time Israel awakens to rebirth, especially when they return to their Land, to plant vineyards and to build the Land, all hell breaks loose, mitga’ashim refa’im umitholelim, as the nations attempt to stop Israel’s rebirth, for such is the basis of all their accusations against Israel.
This will especially be the Ishmaelites’s plaint against Israel in the End of Days, when that end is revealed through fulfillment of Ezekiel 36:8: “You, O mountains of Israel, shall yield your produce and bear your fruit for My people Israel, for their return is near.” (See Sanhedrin 98a) This will result in Israel’s suffering greatly from the Ishmaelites. In this regard, our sages said in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer: “Why are they called ‘Ishmael’? Because in the future, G-d will listen to the cries of Israel over the suffering that the Ishmaelites will cause them in the Land in the End of Days, as it says, ‘G-d hears [Israel], and humbles those who have no fear of G-d.’” (Psalm 55:20)
There you have it. The solution is right there in Ishmael’s name. Our task is to lead productive Jewish lives, to build the land of Israel in preparation for Mashiach, and to know that we are not alone. G-d hears us!
