Pagers in the Parshah
Understood. This is what rabbis do. They will always come up with a connection between events of the week and the parshah.
Trust me. That is not what this is about. I had earlier come across a vort by the Sho’el u-Maishiv which resonated with me. I even shared it with a few people. Then came the explosive success of Israel’s elimination of Hezbollah operatives, two days in a row. That precipitated a tidal wave of GIFs and memes (did you hear that Hezbollah families are naming their newborns after an illustrious French emperor? They think he was called Napoleon Blownaparte), which seems to have crested by now. So now we can get serious, right?
What should a Torah Jew be thinking, as he cannot fail to feel a sense of pride in an operation that brought awareness of Jewish ingenuity to the entire world.
Maybe they should think of the pasuk in this week’s parshah, “Then all the peoples of the earth will see that the Name of Hashem is proclaimed over you, and they will revere you. (Devarim 28:10)
Except that few in the audience are channeling the Name of Hashem. Mostly, it is the name “Mossad” that is striking fear into people each time they turn on a switch.
Moreover, the gemara (Berachos 6b) explains that what the nations will see is the tefillin shel rosh on our foreheads. That does not seem to have played any obvious role here.
Or maybe it did. The Sho’el u-Maishiv (in Divrei Shaul) explains what we are telling ourselves when we bind the tefillin to ourselves. He does it a bit differently than what is described in the usual preparatory paragraphs printed in the siddur, which instruct us to focus our hearts (through the tefillin shel yad) and our minds (tefillin shel rosh) on His service. Rather, he opines that people get things successfully in one of two ways. There are doers, and there are thinkers. In an army, the doers are the combat soldiers. But there are also military geniuses who might very well be weak and klutzes, who are nonetheless crucial to the battle because they are brilliant strategists. They would make terrible combat soldiers.
With the arm-tefillin, we announce that any of our success in what we do is owed entirely to Hashem! With the head-tefillin, we deaccentuate our cleverness and brain-power, and likewise give all the credit to Hashem, who gave us the intelligence in the first place, and then helped the effort along from behind the curtains. Of the two, the head-tefillin conveys the message best, because we all recognize that without brains, brawn just doesn’t get very far.
In essence, when we don tefillin, we downplay our success in the worlds of action and thought. We fully credit Hashem. And we leave room for a third factor, that is more important to us than the other two: what we accomplish through His spirit, through our neshamos. In this way, the nations see that Hashem’s Name is truly emblazoned on us!
As the jokes subside, we will all hopefully take a moment to proclaim to ourselves, our families, and the world that it was Hakadosh Baruch Hu who did wondrously for us this week.
a brilliant and wonderful perspective !
You write: “What should a Torah Jew be thinking, as he cannot fail to feel a sense of pride in an operation that brought awareness of Jewish ingenuity to the entire world.” I would substitute Israeli ingenuity for Jewish ingenuity. The Jewish ingenuity was getting Hezbollah to pay for the beepers!
Kidding aside, we have to recognize God’s role in what happens. However, hishtadlus is an important requirement for all living in this world.
The interplay between hishtadlus and a belief in God’s role in the world is a complex topic with various approaches. Personally, I am inclined to a view based on Rambam at the end of the Moreh: We do not have the right to assume Divine intervention, which is not an everyday occurrence. When and how God chooses to intervene is subject to “lo machshevosai machshevosaichem.”
Nonetheless, after the fact we are obligated to give ho’doah to HKBH.
Who got their maximum leader to equip his whole outfit with these beepers and walkie-talkies without running first article inspections on receipt? Had he done so, only a few people would have been blasted.
https://3d-engineering.net/first-article-inspection-essential-information/
It’s good to know that the enemy can be stupid.
Makes the success even more unbelievable. Showing from another dimension how much hashgacha pratis had to go in to make the operation so successful
Showing from another dimension how much hashgacha pratis had to go in to make the operation so successful
The tefillin transmit only the good messages.
“What should a Torah Jew be thinking, as he cannot fail to feel a sense of pride in an operation that brought awareness of Jewish ingenuity to the entire world”
It’s natural to take pride in this example of a Yiddishe Kop and feel happiness in a victory when a country and nation is beleaguered from multiple sides. At the same time, the pasuk in Tehilim 127 says, “unless Hashem watches over the city, the watchman keeps vigil in vain.” It’s perhaps also ironic that Israel’s overreliance on technology is considered one of the possible causes of 10/7.
Relatedly, R. Moshe Taragin wrote in his book about 10/7, “Dark Clouds Above, Faith Below,” that there is a necessary place for feeling pride in the army’s military accomplishments. See review of his book in the article excerpted and linked below:
“The famous kochi v’otzem yadi passage in Devarim 8:17, “My own power and the might of my own hand have won this wealth for me,” has often been used to diminish the pride one should feel in one’s accomplishments and military victories. On that idea, Taragin articulately writes that every human project demands human initiative alongside faith. Unlike other spheres, though, initiative in war requires self-esteem and personal pride for courage and bravery. Though it feels like excess self-attribution, military pride, and celebration of the courage of the IDF chayalim are all necessary initiatives Hashem desires during war. Taragin notes that without humans feeling pride in their accomplishments, our military initiatives would be hollow and ineffective, and we would rely entirely on miracles. Serving in the army is one area of religious experience in which belief in Hashem and attribution to human effort don’t clash.”
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/book-review-dark-clouds-above-faith-below/