Friday, October 10, 2003
Sparks From Israel
Faith and Courage
From the beginning of Elul to the end of the High Holidays there is an additional Psalm added to the prayers and highlighted throughout these ‘days of awe.’ The subject of this Psalm is also repeated many times by Moshe to Yehoshua as the journey of the Israelites draws to a close - Be Strong and of Good Faith, Hope to G-d and He will strengthen you. These are Moshe’s final commands to the children of Israel.
Today as our journey through the Diaspora draws to a close and we are approaching the climax of our spiritual history, we must understand the last lesson from this ancient book, where the generation of dessert wanderers and the generation of young conquerors overlap. The final lessons of the Torah and the era that dons on us today couldn’t be more fitting.
‘Be Strong and of Good Faith, Hope to G-d and you will be strengthened.’ There are two ideas joined in these passages which if read separately pose a problem. A problem that defines our generation today – ‘Faith without courage or courage without faith.’
Imagine the young David visiting the capitol and seeing Goliath insulting and taunting an army of brave soldiers that seemed helpless to do anything. Imagine the embarrassment of these great warriors as a young boy armed with a slingshot does their work for them. What kept these soldiers from defending their honor? Was it not the same thing that emasculates the army today? - Fear of world reaction. What will the world say and do? And so morality is twisted so that we reward the cruel by doing nothing and punish the kind who suffer from our indifference.
Soldiers who compete to be astronauts and to join in elite fighting forces and who each day prove their courage by defending their brothers cannot squash a rebellion of suicide bombers? The missing piece in their armour is lack of faith. It is this lack that makes them say they are weary and tired and unable to fight for a cause that they no longer see as just. Or if they do see the justice of their cause they say there is nothing they can do about it.
And what about those who have faith and lack courage? Those who sit in Yeshivas all around the world and justify their inaction by calling it the action of ‘Prayer, Torah and Good Deeds’ thinking that this alone will bring Moshiach. Is it faith that makes one believe that Moshiach will arrive like a superman flying from heaven with the temple already built? Or is it a convenient alibi to mask ones lack of faith with piety. Those who have faith but lack the courage to really ‘live’ their faith are like the generation of the dessert who preferred to stay in the comfort of the dessert yeshiva, even if it meant digging their own graves each year.*
This was the curse that was given to them as punishment for their lack of faith and for thinking of themselves as small against giants much greater than them. Those who have faith lack courage, and those who have courage lack faith. If only we could fix this flaw in our nation that runs equally through both camps, then we could stand up to our enemies without fear and with conviction of faith. On that day the battle will be won in less than six days. And what will the world do? Stand in awe, and then applaude.
The Midrash tells us that because of the sin of the spies, the Israelites were punished by wandering for 40 years in the dessert until that entire generation died out. Each year on Tisha B’Av, they would dig their own graves and lie in them. In the morning if they were still alive, they knew that they would have another year (unfortunately, this sounds too familiar).
Faith and Courage
From the beginning of Elul to the end of the High Holidays there is an additional Psalm added to the prayers and highlighted throughout these ‘days of awe.’ The subject of this Psalm is also repeated many times by Moshe to Yehoshua as the journey of the Israelites draws to a close - Be Strong and of Good Faith, Hope to G-d and He will strengthen you. These are Moshe’s final commands to the children of Israel.
Today as our journey through the Diaspora draws to a close and we are approaching the climax of our spiritual history, we must understand the last lesson from this ancient book, where the generation of dessert wanderers and the generation of young conquerors overlap. The final lessons of the Torah and the era that dons on us today couldn’t be more fitting.
‘Be Strong and of Good Faith, Hope to G-d and you will be strengthened.’ There are two ideas joined in these passages which if read separately pose a problem. A problem that defines our generation today – ‘Faith without courage or courage without faith.’
Imagine the young David visiting the capitol and seeing Goliath insulting and taunting an army of brave soldiers that seemed helpless to do anything. Imagine the embarrassment of these great warriors as a young boy armed with a slingshot does their work for them. What kept these soldiers from defending their honor? Was it not the same thing that emasculates the army today? - Fear of world reaction. What will the world say and do? And so morality is twisted so that we reward the cruel by doing nothing and punish the kind who suffer from our indifference.
Soldiers who compete to be astronauts and to join in elite fighting forces and who each day prove their courage by defending their brothers cannot squash a rebellion of suicide bombers? The missing piece in their armour is lack of faith. It is this lack that makes them say they are weary and tired and unable to fight for a cause that they no longer see as just. Or if they do see the justice of their cause they say there is nothing they can do about it.
And what about those who have faith and lack courage? Those who sit in Yeshivas all around the world and justify their inaction by calling it the action of ‘Prayer, Torah and Good Deeds’ thinking that this alone will bring Moshiach. Is it faith that makes one believe that Moshiach will arrive like a superman flying from heaven with the temple already built? Or is it a convenient alibi to mask ones lack of faith with piety. Those who have faith but lack the courage to really ‘live’ their faith are like the generation of the dessert who preferred to stay in the comfort of the dessert yeshiva, even if it meant digging their own graves each year.*
This was the curse that was given to them as punishment for their lack of faith and for thinking of themselves as small against giants much greater than them. Those who have faith lack courage, and those who have courage lack faith. If only we could fix this flaw in our nation that runs equally through both camps, then we could stand up to our enemies without fear and with conviction of faith. On that day the battle will be won in less than six days. And what will the world do? Stand in awe, and then applaude.
The Midrash tells us that because of the sin of the spies, the Israelites were punished by wandering for 40 years in the dessert until that entire generation died out. Each year on Tisha B’Av, they would dig their own graves and lie in them. In the morning if they were still alive, they knew that they would have another year (unfortunately, this sounds too familiar).
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