This week, friends of Chabad raised their glasses in celebration, marking 60 years since Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn assumed leadership of the movement. Since then, Chabad has risen to become the largest Jewish outreach organization in the world. The thanks are due entirely to the Rebbe’s unwavering commitment to the rebuilding of the Jewish nation, a mere five years after the holocaust. He worked tirelessly reaching out to every Jew, inspiring them to reawaken their commitment to G-d.
My grandfather was born in a small town on the border of Hungary and Transylvania, known as Siget. Upon Germany’s invasion of Hungary, he was deported to the infamous death camp, Auschwitz. It was there that he witnessed the slaughter of his first wife and their three little daughters. The agony and degradation that he suffered during those turbulent times affected him so greatly that he could not bear to speak of his experiences. His nightmares haunted him till the day he died.
In time, he met and married my grandmother, a fellow survivor. They found comfort in one another and built a beautiful life together, surrounded with children and grandchildren. These two survivors, although no longer alive, have most certainly triumphed in the war, for every additional branch added to their family tree is a stunning blow to Hitler and everything he stood for.
In this week’s Torah portion of Beshalach, G-d commands us to totally obliterate the nation of Amalek. In a bold move that flared G-d’s anger, Amalek attacked the Israelites upon their redemption from Egypt, just when the nations of the time had been so inspired by G-d’s wondrous miracles.
This week, during a ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Benyamin Netanyahu compared the Nazis to Amalek. He said that today we have a more modern yet equally lethal Amalek whose sole mission is to massacre innocent children and non-believing infidels. Furthermore, he stated, "We, the Jewish people, have internalized our lesson well after losing a third of our people, and have learned that the only guarantee for our nation is a strong state and the IDF.”
A congregant in our shul recently asked me what is more important, to learn how to fight or to learn how to pray?
While freely acknowledging that a physical army is crucial to the survival of our state, I must disagree with Netanyahu’s conviction that it is our only guarantee. I believe that the true strength of Am Yisrael lies solely in their commitment to G-d. The triumph of a Jewish soldier is entirely dependent on and directly influenced by the shul’s occupancy. When we commit to His Torah and to His will, G-d in turn looks favourably upon us, fuelling our tanks and steering our planes.
During the Six Day War in 1967, Israel eradicated six hostile armies in a feat so far unparalleled in modern history. Israel was heavily outnumbered. It didn’t take a military general to conclude that the odds were entirely against them. Our pilots were well trained and our soldiers fought bravely but our victory can only be attributed to the fact that G-d was on our side. It was nothing short of a miracle.
The Nazi’s ruined my grandfathers home. They stole his livelihood. They destroyed his home. They slaughtered his parents. They butchered his siblings. They massacred his wife and three daughters. They crushed his body. But they could not touch his soul. They could not shatter his spirit. His faith remained intact and undefeatable.
Our spirit and essence can never be shattered by our enemies and it is this faith in our Creator that ultimatley leads to our victories in battle.
My thanks to Efrat Schochet for her editorial assistance.
