WE WON’T FORGET AND WE WON’T FORGIVE!

Seven years ago, in Av 5765, the State of Israel expelled the Jews of Gush Katif, destroyed their homes, abandoned their shuls, and exhumed their dead. Rabbi Sholom Dovber Wolpo, one of the leaders in the fight against the withdrawal and expulsion, was interviewed by Beis Moshiach soon after the churban took place.

We all participated in the mass t’filla at the Kosel. Tens of thousands rent the skies with their prayers for months on end. How do we explain the fact that despite our prayers, Gush Katif was destroyed?

The question about t’fillos being for naught, as it were, is not new. In last week’s parsha it says that Moshe Rabbeinu prayed 515 prayers as the numerical value of the word “VaEschanan,” until Hashem rebuked him and said, “Enough! Do not continue speaking to Me anymore about this matter.” And in fact, Moshe did not enter Eretz Yisroel. But those who learn Chassidus know that there is the situation in which “if we merited…and now that we did not merit…,” that the situation of not being meritorious is loftier than being meritorious.

We see this with the breaking of the Luchos that if we had been meritorious, there would not have been the Sin of the Golden Calf and we would have the first Luchos. Now that we were not meritorious and Moshe broke the Luchos, that were the work of G-d and had His writing on it, we received the second Luchos and it was these Luchos that were “Kiflayim L’Tushiya” (double the power).

It is like the statement of Chazal that if Yisroel did not sin, they would have only been given the five books of the Torah and the book of Yehoshua, and now that they sinned, we have the 24 books of Tanach and the Mishna, Gemara, poskim, etc.

So too with Moshe entering Eretz Yisroel. If we had merited it, Moshe would have brought us into Eretz Yisroel and it would have been the final Geula. Since we were not meritorious, Moshe remained in the desert, and the true and complete Geula will be incomparably greater than the Geula we would have had with Moshe, without a churban and galus. This is like the advantage that baalei t’shuva have over tzaddikim, as Chassidus explains at length.

So, G-d forbid to say that Moshe’s prayers did not help, because surely Hashem heard his prayers and he will ultimately enter the land and fulfill the mitzvos there, but Hashem wanted Moshe’s entry to the land to be on a much loftier plane than what Moshe prayed for.

It is the same in our situation. We definitely had to plead to Hashem to annul our enemies’ plans and allow the settlers to remain forever, but now that we did not merit the fulfillment of our prayers, we need to find the silver lining in this terrible situation because “no evil descends from Above.”

What about the fact that rabbanim announced that surely Hashem listens to the prayers of the masses and the expulsion won’t happen, and now, we have all kinds of explanations about why the prayers were not immediately and tangibly responded to?

The answer to this question too can be found in the breaking of the Luchos and Moshe’s prayer. Is it possible that when Moshe received the first Luchos, someone would have thought that it would be great if the Jewish people sinned and the Luchos would be broken so that we could get “Kiflayim L’Tushiya?” Or is it possible that while Moshe prayed he would have considered Hashem not listening to his prayers so that he would reach a higher level though churban and galus? G-d forbid to say such a thing and someone who thinks that way is a heretic. Because from the outset, you need to pray for what seems obviously good, but now that we were not meritorious, we need to look for the good, the Yerida L’Tzorech Aliya.

It is like the inyan of the special quality of baalei t’shuva that if someone says he will sin and then repent in order to attain the quality of t’shuva, he is not given an opportunity to repent. From the outset we need to do the right thing according to Torah, but after the fact, we need to look for the good and make sure we take full advantage of it.

What good can we find in the terrible churban of holy communities of Jews in Eretz Yisroel, which brings terrorists closer to our cities?

Before I try to respond, I will ask forgiveness from the large and holy segment of our society, whom we love and with whom we became more and more friendly in recent months. I assume that what I have to say will hurt some of them, but if we don’t have the courage to say the truth, we will be failing in our G-dly mission as Chassidei Lubavitch, Soldiers of the House of Dovid.

The hidden good that came out of this awful process is that the prophecy that before Moshiach comes, “matters will become clarified,” came true. The entire world saw how those whom many considered to be Moshiach Ben Yosef and what they called Is’chalta d’Geula – “the beginnings of the blossoming of our Geula” – i.e. the members of the government, and with the aid and consent of religious Knesset members, declared open war on the G-d of Israel, Toras Yisroel, Am Yisroel, and Eretz Yisroel. The army, which to them is considered the most holy ideal, did not defend the Jewish people and its land. Instead, dressed in black with the symbol of the State on their chests, they worked assiduously on behalf of Hamas and Islamic Jihad as a well-oiled destruction machine, to destroy dozens of Jewish settlements, exile thousands of Jews, leave shuls and battei midrash for destruction by our enemies, and exhume our dead, including those who died Al Kiddush Hashem, from their graves.

These horrific things could not be perpetrated by any other country in the world; just in one place, the State of Israel of Ben Gurion, Rabin, Peres, Begin, and Sharon.

Of those who, till today, still promote “nationalism” and faith in the State as the Is’chalta d’Geula, how can they not hide their heads in shame? How can they not klap Al Cheit for poisoning thousands of youth with heretical ideas that pushed off the coming of the real redeemer and caused bloodshed for generations?

Up until this very day, they maintained that although the Prime Minister does not act properly, and this minister and that minister are no tzaddikim either, the State itself, i.e. the Israeli government in Eretz Yisroel, is the “Kisei Malchus Hashem,” and it’s just that the Geula comes “bit by bit.” They claimed that with time, the people in these positions will be changed and then the glory of the State will shine in full force. But now we see that the problem is not with one person or another, but that the State itself is rotten from the foundation. This is because it is a democratic regime that decides not according to Torah but according to majority vote of Arabs, Christians and (l’havdil) an eirev rav of Jews. These are joined by the votes of religious Jews who make decisions about life and death matters after receiving bribes of positions in the government or money for yeshivos. And the IDF which is supposed to protect Jews is given cruel orders from evil men and ends up serving the terrorists over their fellow Jews.

It sounds from what you’re saying that we are living in a democratic country.

Of course, it’s not like that at all. I only meant those principles that the country is supposedly founded on, which even in the best case scenario is one of a pluralistic democracy. Actually, the “Is’chalta d’Geula” is the last remaining communist country in the world.

The difference between a democratic country and a dictatorship is primarily in its media. In a democratic country, the media is not a tool of the government, while in a communist dictatorship, Pravda serves the government. We have seen that we live in a dictatorship. All the Israeli media, without exception, were enlisted in the war against G-d and His anointed one. Every broadcaster who opened his mouth was happy to report about progress in the withdrawal. They were delighted to report about families being dragged from their homes and the destruction of shuls and homes.

The hypocrisy of the media is outrageous. They repeatedly said we cannot involve soldiers in political debates, and therefore they should not be told to refuse orders. In other words, to force them to act against their conscience and to turn them into an army of expulsion and destruction is okay; that does not involve them in political debate, but to tell them not to do that, is forbidden.

Then a new accusation appeared. Why did the expellees involve their children in opposition to the withdrawal without considering the emotional damage this would cause them? Here too, falsehood reigns supreme, because to expel a child from his home is fine, and that passes the rules of the “Council to Defend Children.” To show him how they are destroying his school and his shul, that’s great. To leave a child and his parents without parnasa and to force them to move to a new place and start life over again is wonderful. But what was not fine is that parents should have explained to their child that the soldiers, the policemen and the elite commandos in black who are overtaking the yishuv are really good angels that dear uncle Arik Sharon sent to help them pack their belongings so they could move to a new wonderful home away from the mortars.

If, because of all this, thousands of Jews stop celebrating the communist, heretical Independence Day, if they stop referring to the institutions that tore countless Jewish children away from their religion through the phrase “the beginning of the blossoming of our redemption,” then the Expulsion will be transformed into an impetus for belief in the real Geula through Moshiach Tzidkeinu.

This is the silver lining that we can see in the terrible darkness of the destruction of Gush Katif. Hundreds of thousands of Jews have been disengaged, once and for all, from their blind belief in a natural Geula through the State of Israel and are inspired to ask for the Malchus Dovid and the true Geula.

I think that many settlers have already drawn these conclusions.

Yes, we hear more voices calling for disengaging from belief in the State, and that is a positive step. What sort of positive regard can those removed from Gush Katif and the Shomron and their supporters have, after seeing the men in black with the symbol of the State on their chests and caps, uprooting Am Yisroel from their land, destroying their homes and abandoning their shuls to destruction, preparing the infrastructure for a Hamas and Al-Qaeda state, and desecrating our dead?

Some years ago, there was a chase after senior terrorists in Bethlehem. The terrorists entered a church and the chase was halted, because it was clear that soldiers could not enter the church even though it contained terrorists with Jewish blood on their hands. In the end, the terrorists emerged triumphant and the soldiers of the State of Israel retreated in shame. And yet here, thousands of our soldiers broke into dozens of shuls, not in order to catch criminals but to destroy the shuls.

The Rebbe screamed about how, during the Six Day War, over 700 of our soldiers were killed in the Old City of Yerushalayim, only because the government did not allow the Air Force to bomb the mosques where the Jordanian Legion soldiers were hiding. But the criminal PM Sharon and his band of criminal ministers deliberately destroyed shuls where the Sh’china dwelled and all the media trumpet their courage.

While we sat in the Sephardic shul and waited for the expulsion army to come and remove us, various rabbanim gave shiurim and words of chizuk. One of the rabbanim praised our dear youth and said to them: You are terrific; there is nobody like you; you will be the future leaders of the State!

I was sitting on one of the benches in the back, and when I heard that I exclaimed: What State? The State is finished. Just Malchus Dovid!

There was silence and nobody knew what to say. Then another rabbi spoke, and in the middle of his talk he said: I support what one of the rabbis sitting here said before: There is no more State! What we want is only Malchus Beis Dovid.

They all applauded.

R’ Chaim Drukman gave an inspirational talk to hundreds of bachurim before the expulsion from the shul and he said, “The menorah etched in the Arch of Titus as a sign of the defeat of the Jewish people has itself become a symbol of the revival in the State of Israel.”

I could not refrain from shouting out, “It is not a symbol of revival but a symbol of capitulation to terror, a symbol of displacement and expulsion. This menorah rests on the heart of every soldier and policeman who is presently destroying the holy land, making the Gaza Strip ‘Judenrein,’ and repeating the terrible events of Kristallnacht and the burning of shuls.”

When the speeches were over, we all stood up for the last Mincha. After Mincha, they took out all the Sifrei Torah from the Aron Kodesh as we said “Avinu Malkeinu.” I considered going to the nearby Ashkenazi shul and bringing the new Torah we had just brought there, but then I saw that someone had made a chuppa over the Sifrei Torah out of a big Israeli flag! That’s when I decided that the Torah that we had written would not go under a “makif” of a state of expulsion and destruction.

I heard that there was recently a gathering of hundreds of teachers from religious schools for the purpose of discussing how to continue to explain faith in the State as part of the process of Geula when kids ask questions and want to know how that fits with the terrible things that they perpetrated. One of the participants told me that throughout the day, Zionist rabbis came up with all kinds of explanations to show how it is not a contradiction. Not one person said the answer is simple, that it’s because it is all a lie and the State has no holiness whatsoever and the emperor has no clothes!

The hardest moment for me, throughout these months, when I believed that the expulsion would not happen, was when I suddenly lost that belief. It was at the conclusion of the huge rally in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. After one of the rabbanim said Shma, Hashem Hu HaElokim, Ana Hashem Hoshia Na, etc. everyone sang HaTikva. It was at that moment that I said to myself: If after everything we’ve been through they are still singing the anthem of Sharon and his cronies, with words composed by someone who had no connection to Judaism, without a mention of G-d, then apparently we need a bigger jolt which will show us what sort of “free nation” we are in our land.

Aren’t you insulting the rabbanim, G’dolei Torah, whose ideology this is, and those who follow them?

Rabbi Shmuel Tal, head of the Toras Chaim Yeshiva, definitely believes in the greatness of the rabbis who were the founders of religious Zionism and yet, he and other big rabbis have dropped the observance and celebration of Independence Day. They also teach their students to eschew the waving of Israeli flags and other Zionist symbols.

Many have gotten G-d’s message after the destruction they witnessed. One of them is Rabbi Shimon Riklin, a distinguished religious Zionist educator. On Channel 1 television he said, “I gave a get krisus (writ of divorce) to the State. I will no longer celebrate Independence Day. The army is not holy. I will consider it an educational failure if my students enlist in combat units.”

Other national religious people began distributing stickers which say (in translation): There is no way I will be drafted into an army of Jewish expulsion.

Is it possible for good to come out of this?

It seems cruel to say, but we see with Rabbi Akiva that when he saw a fox come out of the Holy of Holies, he laughed. This was because after seeing Zion plowed under, he knew that the subsequent salvation would be that much greater.

In a yechidus that R’ Efraim Yolles had with the Rebbe, he asked: If the Israeli government continues its policy of appeasement and concessions is there a danger that the State would be dismantled?

The Rebbe replied: The State won’t be dismantled, but it will be a “lowly State.”

We have reached the nadir of wretchedness and it is time for Moshiach to come.

How can you blame the army which merely receives orders and carries them out?

There are those who defend the soldiers and police, many of whom carried out the crime with “sensitivity” and tears. However, in my humble opinion, this is where we see the “klipa” of the State. For if only heartless soldiers served in the army of destruction and expulsion it would make sense, but when this was perpetrated by thousands of believers in G-d, who fervently kiss the Sifrei Torah and sincerely sob along with those being thrown out, and many of them wore a kippa and some had beards, this is because they were given a heretical education. They were taught that there is a Creator and He gave us the Torah, but the State supersedes all. This is precisely the point we want to stamp out. The State is merely a technical entity with no aura of holiness and this technical entity is intended to serve Torah. If it does so, fine; if it does not do so, it is bad. In either case, we do not regard its institutions and those who bear senior positions in the State or the army as having any sanctity or as Is’chalta d’Geula whatsoever.

One of the most moving moments in Neve Dekalim was before the soldiers burst into the area of the shuls, when the mara d’asra Rabbi Yigal Kaminetzky recited the “Keil Malei Rachamim” for those killed al kiddush Hashem in Gush Katif. The crowd of over thousand young people wailed and the more names he read, the more they sobbed. When he reached the names of Mrs. Tali Hatuel and her four daughters, the crying reached a peak.

As I observed the incredible precision and professionalism of the execution of the expulsion, I asked the commanding officers:

Where were you when 6000 mortars and missiles fell here? Was the army born yesterday? If you are so mighty, why was Mrs. Hatuel and her family murdered? Why were dozens of Jews killed in shooting attacks in Gush Katif? Why were over 1000 Jews murdered in terror attacks under Sharon’s reign? Why are tens of thousands of Jews maimed for the rest of their lives? Where were you, my brothers, until now? You have so many professional soldiers and policemen, and yet the list for the “Keil Malei Rachamim” is so long!

I had an argument with Rabbi Chanan Porat in Neve Dekalim. He said: How can you say that the army is not holy? If the army was dismantled, we would not (through natural means) be able to live here!

My response was that based on that reasoning we should say that the policemen in Brooklyn are holy because without them, Jews couldn’t live there. So obviously, these are not holy entities but simply technical entities. If they serve holiness, they fulfill their purpose; if the Israeli army and police betray their function, they are the opposite of holiness.

Until now, you’ve spoken from the spiritual perspective of Moshiach and Geula. What can be done practically about Shleimus Ha’Aretz in order to prevent a repetition of the tragedy of the destruction of additional yishuvim in Yehuda-Shomron?

In a letter that the Rebbe wrote to Mrs. Geula Cohen in 5741, he said that he could not instruct his Chassidim to live in settlements that she had specified, because it was clear to him that the settlements were only temporary. In the Rebbe’s words, “Calls on my part and the like are possible when they can be based on the firm hope that the settlement will endure, but not if it is only to serve a political goal and to capitalize on the excitement of public opinion and then, before very long, the settlers will be removed. I do not get involved in politics but in halacha. According to the ideology of those who had and have influence in these matters throughout the last 32 years, I have seen that it is in one direction, that of concessions and withdrawal …What do they care about removing settlers from a place or two or more, especially when outside pressure increases, and especially when they actually did this already (in Yamit), when they used the IDF for this, and all the parties just went back to business as usual. So to openly say they should settle there and to hint to the settlers that this is only meant to serve as a temporary demonstration, is not my approach.”

From what the Rebbe says we see that he does not think the settlements stand a chance as long as there is no fundamental change in the State’s policies. Nevertheless, the Rebbe continued to protest and fight against giving away land, because we need to protest and do what we can to topple the government and replace it with something better as we saw with his efforts during Shamir’s tenure, nine years after this letter was written.

The media reported that the American government told the prime minister as soon as the expulsion began that this is just the beginning and now the entire Road Map needs to be implemented. So the battle over Yehuda, Shomron and Yerushalayim has first begun. We need to do all we can to acquaint the public with the Rebbe’s message, while there are still hundreds of thousands of people who are moved by the horrors of the expulsion. We need to change public opinion about further concessions and withdrawals.

You must also take into account that the policemen and soldiers who took part in the expulsion are upset with the government for forcing them to carry out this crime. We need to reinforce that feeling by being mekarev them to Torah and mitzvos, in a manner that negates the possibility of any future government being able to do the same thing again in the future.

The main thing is to spread the belief in the true Geula through Moshiach. Now that the false Zionist lie has been buried, it’s the right time to disseminate the truth.

LEARNING WHAT KABBALAS OL IS

The Baal Shem Tov says that we need to learn a lesson in the service of Hashem from everything we see and hear. When I was in Gush Katif I learned many things:

In Chassidus it explains the quality of iskafia (self-suppression), particularly regarding one who keeps his mouth closed – iskafia in speech, not speaking lashon ha’ra, rechilus, angry words, etc. We had the opportunity to see thousands of soldiers and policemen being yelled at and not responding. They acted as though they didn’t hear the pleading or the insults or the tears. I was very impressed by this tremendous display of “Avodas HaMiddos.” Although this was the opposite of k’dusha and the results were churban and expulsion, we say, “You have made me wise from my enemies.” There is what to learn here, in Avodas Hashem.

Likewise, we can learn what Kabbalas Ol is. Each of the soldiers and policemen (aside from a few exceptions) did his/her shameful work as though compelled to do so, with broken hearts and spirits, while absorbing sharp comments and the crying of men, women and children. This was in addition to the physical conditions of heat and 80% humidity. They knew that a soldier must follow orders and that while carrying out orders the mind does not work and the heart does not exist and the heat isn’t felt. There is just one thing – Kabbalas Ol to carrying out the order.

Although the results here were devastating, and it was all coming from the Evil Inclination and the utilization of the G-dly Kabbalas Ol for evil things, we may keep in mind as mentioned above, “You have made me wise from my enemies.” Each of us must ask himself: Do I do Hashem’s mission that was given to me by the Rebbe MH”M without being thrown off by my thoughts and feelings, without considering the heat or the cold, without being embarrassed by those who mock? Am I passionate about the mission to the point of transcending physical limitations as the soldiers were for evil purposes?

The Rambam says at the end of the Laws of Kings (in the excerpt removed by the censor) that the Christian Yoshke and the Ishmaelite Mohammed paved the way for Moshiach. Here too, we can say that the discipline of the army is a preparation for Moshiach, because now the soldiers are used to carrying out orders for an evil regime and a Knesset of heretics. “When Moshiach comes, they will immediately know that they inherited lies from their fathers, and their prophets and fathers misled them.” Then they will use the Kabbalas Ol they were trained to have in order to be loyal soldiers in the Army of Hashem of Melech HaMoshiach.

Another thing that is hard to forget and which we can learn from is the tremendous achdus among the youth and between all those who worked to protect Gush Katif. You were able to see it everywhere, especially when they danced together with their hands on each other’s shoulders. They came from all over the country with varying views and ideologies and one thing united them. The goal was to save Am Yisroel and Eretz Yisroel.

I had many arguments with the leaders, especially on the topic of Is’chalta d’Geula, but our arguments always ended with a hug and loving words. Why? Because we knew that there was more that united us than divided us and our mission had to unite us. Shouldn’t we adopt this in our own camp? Is our goal, the mission we were given to bring the Jewish people to an acceptance of Moshiach, not important enough to dissolve our differences of opinion and unite us?

I must also express my amazement for the Kirshenzaft family. Who among us would be willing to have dozens of people living in our home on a regular basis? Young and old sat in their house throughout the day, learning Chitas and Rambam, saying T’hillim and davening. People were sleeping on the floor, on sofas and out in the yard. The family did not stop asking people to wash for a meal, to have a cup of tea, to have a cold drink. All the rooms hummed with activity. The porches were occupied. The phones and cell phones did not stop ringing. When you walked into the house you had to be careful not to step on someone sleeping under the table. The children walked around without shoes, because they were lost in the chaos created by the guests. So tell me, honestly, who would be willing to raise a large family under these conditions for weeks on end? And this was after the father was injured in a terrorist attack and had still not fully recovered.