Children of the Rabbeim Only Get Stronger in Difficult Times
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik
It’s very hard to express the feelings that most of us are feeling and thinking about what occurred in Eretz Yisroel this week. The horrors that these inhumane creatures carried out in their cruel and evil way is unspeakable. These are terrorist vultures that cannot be reasoned with. They are just like Hitler y”sh. They want everything and they want to throw us into the sea. We see the world standing by and watching in silence as they, with Jewish blood on their hands celebrate the death and the killing with dancing and singing. They also celebrated the death of 3000 innocents on 9/11. The American government is blind. They push forward without any rational another round of peace initiatives and finger pointing at Israel. If the world would have stood up and fought for the Eretz Yisroel all these years and taken a strong hand against terrorism would the world be facing the likes of ISIS in 2014? I doubt it.
We also need to take a look at ourselves. In Eretz Yisroel the definition of a Jew and the purpose of a Jew has been breached. It began both spiritually and tangibly when the Rebbe waged the battle over the wording of the famous legislation known as “Mihu Yehudi- Who is a Jew” in Israel’s Knesset. The Rebbe fought that the wording of the law should read that a conversion should be according to Halacha, “giur h’halacha”. We are still in the midst of this battle as the law has not yet been amended and the government in Israel is stalling with a half a million Russian immigrants whose status is still undefined. All of this has trickled down into the physical as well and our borders are not secure. The Rebbe said this concept clearly the 13th of Tishrei 5734-1973 in the middle of the Yom Kippur War.
What we can learn from this is that it takes time to get lost in the forest. We see from that what has happened in Israel didn’t occur overnight.
So too today we see the rise of radical Islam. It all began with President Carter forcing the Shah out of power in Iran back in the 1970’s. The lesson for us today is not to compromise. We shouldn’t collapse to pressure by saying I can’t keep this minhag or I must compromise on this or that negative influence in the home. Our animal soul is just that, an animal. It wants everything and will never give in to partial compromises.
Moses Mendelsohn, the founder of the Reform Movement was a religious Jew. He put on Tefillin every day. Since he veered, even if it was a little at first, we see what came in the end. The students of the Baal Shem Tov were well aware of this danger and knew how to stay away from the trap of compromises. They could see beyond the allure of compromise and instead waged battle against Mendelsohn’s ideology through the inspiration found in chassidus. The Rebbe Rashab was standing strong by founding Yeshivas Tomchei Tmimim 20 years in advance of the Russian Revolution and it’s consequences; “ikvus meshichecha”. The Rebbe saw what lay ahead in our generation and forged forward with Mivtzoyim, Chabad Houses and Ufaratzta.
By being connected, the Rebbe gives us the power to continue the struggle over Mihu Yehudi and to repair the breach in our borders in Eretz Yisroel. We need to safeguard every word in the Torah that it remains complete without compromise in thought, speech and action. We are Chayolei Bais David and we do not compromise. This is the way that we will win the galus and bring the geula Now!