Oct. 12, 2023
A Torah Approach and a Unified Response to the 2023 Israel-Hamas War
The news of war in Israel hits you like a freight train. Your emotions soar - anger, numbing shock, an overwhelming thirst for revenge. It's a shared sentiment, underlining the deep familial bond we Jews have. The call to arms? It's not just for those on the battlefield. We're waging war on two fronts - the physical and the spiritual. Tune in as we untangle this web of emotions, discussing ways to offer unwavering support to our frontline soldiers while battling spiritual evil.
Look around you - can you see the horrors unfolding in Israel? It's a bitter pill to swallow, acknowledging the suffering and violence. Yet, it's not our place to turn a blind eye. We might not be able to combat the evil forces physically, but we can mount a brave stand for justice. Listen in as we stress the need for unity in these trying times, reminding you that an injury to one of us is an attack on us all. We rally against this evil, pledging never to tolerate such atrocities. This isn't just a podcast episode; it's a rallying cry for action.
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Chapters
00:00 - It's War
10:43 - Bravery to Acknowledge and Stand Up
Transcript
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There was supposed to be TMC immediately after Sukkis.
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I was just struggling to process the emotions of what had happened in Israel.
00:00:10.092 --> 00:00:12.964
It was our holiday.
00:00:12.964 --> 00:00:16.202
I walked outside of Shul Beautiful weather.
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I remember thinking as the sun hit my face, still wearing my talus Daughter had gotten some lollipop gook on it and I was thinking about that.
00:00:26.172 --> 00:00:29.670
And then this man walked past Wasn't a Shul Masha'b as Jew?
00:00:29.670 --> 00:00:33.509
And he said it's full blown war in Israel.
00:00:33.509 --> 00:00:35.646
And he ran down the street and that was it.
00:00:37.581 --> 00:01:01.866
The news started to be heard in the Shul About the macabre, brutal, horrid, murdering, butchering, slaughtering, carnage, all caused by these Hamas roaches, these people from Gaza on golf carts or however.
00:01:01.866 --> 00:01:06.921
They got in to Jewish neighborhoods, civilians.
00:01:06.921 --> 00:01:17.349
These horrible terrorists just walked into neighborhoods, butchering humans like meat.
00:01:17.349 --> 00:01:23.834
I wasn't sad when I started to hear the news.
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It was weird.
00:01:25.581 --> 00:01:27.989
I was numb because I was so angry.
00:01:27.989 --> 00:01:31.724
The Hamas-oy-bo-ar-ab-bo.
00:01:31.724 --> 00:01:34.873
I wanted them dead, all of them.
00:01:34.873 --> 00:01:40.344
I couldn't even look at the news.
00:01:40.344 --> 00:01:41.168
A lot of us can't.
00:01:41.168 --> 00:01:42.543
It's unbelievable.
00:01:42.543 --> 00:01:45.819
The number so staggering, the pain so unimaginable.
00:01:45.819 --> 00:02:00.344
The news headlines do not process 750 people murdered, beheading babies.
00:02:00.344 --> 00:02:02.650
Are you even a human?
00:02:02.650 --> 00:02:03.612
Apparently not.
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If you can do that, what type of insect roach or cockroach are you Putting bullets in bubs, dismembering human beings?
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I want to revenge.
00:02:22.704 --> 00:02:26.647
I was angry, but I didn't know if that was the right emotion either.
00:02:26.647 --> 00:02:40.235
Didn't feel right, my heart racing, anger boiling up, so I didn't want to say anything because I didn't have anything to say and I wasn't sure about what to say.
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But it seems that these are the right emotions.
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We're only trying to be God-like down here.
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It says he takes revenge for the spilled blood of His servants.
00:03:03.084 --> 00:03:10.256
And revenge is what I want and I bet it's what you want.
00:03:10.256 --> 00:03:12.709
I want them all to die.
00:03:15.465 --> 00:03:29.891
It's weird to say it, it's weird to have these thoughts and feelings, but it's an ace, it's a ruck, it's a time of pain and, like we just heard in Kohela, there's a time for peace and there's a time for war and make no mistake about it.
00:03:29.891 --> 00:03:35.873
Through the emotions, through the news, through what's going on in the world, it's a full-blown time for war.
00:03:35.873 --> 00:03:51.012
If me and my family would have been in any of these neighborhoods, I have no question that they would have gone after me, my wife, my daughters.
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When I think about that, I wanna fly to Israel and I wanna be with them.
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Just remember them and step on their throats.
00:04:02.292 --> 00:04:23.831
I think any person that doesn't feel pain for their brothers and sisters that this happened to over in Israel and the innocent civilians that were tortured and that were taken hostage by these cockroaches, I think may have to question whether or not they really understand how deeply rooted the connection between every Jew is.
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We are one nation and that's my sister and my brother that you touched.
00:04:33.312 --> 00:04:38.233
That will not be tolerated, not now and not ever.
00:04:42.665 --> 00:04:45.093
It's weird to see total evil in the world.
00:04:45.093 --> 00:04:53.932
We're very accepting, we try to encourage, but ayah ve'ah shem, those who love God.
00:04:53.932 --> 00:05:03.353
The barometer of your love, great ones tell us, is how much you are sinu-rah, that you hate and despise evil.
00:05:03.353 --> 00:05:12.754
And it's easy to discern that this action, these people, are the ultimate evil.
00:05:12.754 --> 00:05:25.411
And this all ends the same way they lose, they made their move, they made their choices and now they die.
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It's our job to destroy evil.
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That's all we do on this earth.
00:05:34.762 --> 00:05:38.464
We just try to surm-e-ra and stomp on evil.
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Hashem's throne is not complete until evil, evil, amalek, is eradicated from the world.
00:05:46.937 --> 00:06:08.824
So we retaliate, just like the first Jewish war ever, when Hashem, the help of his trusty attendant, his servant, our leader Moshe Rabbeinu, took us out from its realm.
00:06:08.824 --> 00:06:11.865
And then we were attacked, blindsided and ambushed by Amalek.
00:06:11.865 --> 00:06:14.805
Hashem said gave the message to Moshe.
00:06:14.805 --> 00:06:29.504
Moshe gave the battle plans to Yahushua yeah, go get the best troops, destroy them, so we find our best troops, we send out our best soldiers.
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These people are sitting on the front lines.
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You have to have the ultimate Hakkara Satov for the tzahal.
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You have to have the ultimate rooting mentality and the ultimate gratitude.
00:06:43.136 --> 00:06:55.550
These young gentlemen, young girls, are having bullets whizzed by their head, giving up their lives for something bigger, for us, for Hashem, for what they're fighting for.
00:06:55.550 --> 00:06:58.649
Just making it real.
00:06:58.649 --> 00:07:04.452
I remember I went paintballing once and I was standing behind this little tire and there was paintballs flying by me and I was freaking out.
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These are real bullets and these are real people.
00:07:06.730 --> 00:07:17.822
They have ultimate akharis atto for them, these people fighting the war, like Yoshua when he took the troops.
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That's our job to enable them.
00:07:24.516 --> 00:07:43.257
Whether you're a type of person that wants to fly over there and help, that's very noble of you, but at least like we see the Jewish people doing the remarkable and astonishing sending of goods and services, people, bulletproof vests you see what's going on.
00:07:43.257 --> 00:07:47.661
You can see it on the pictures, the social media and the text messages, all the different Tafelen and Sitzis.
00:07:47.661 --> 00:07:52.242
But here, what can we do?
00:07:52.242 --> 00:08:05.524
How can we wage war if we're not exactly on the Madrega to fly to Eretz Yisrael and maybe we still want to do more besides for just send supplies?
00:08:07.235 --> 00:08:25.144
Well, while Moshe Rabbeinu gave the advice to Yoshua to go to war and get the troops, moshe then followed till the top of the mountain, hands held high, because we're taught that every Jewish battle is waged on two fronts, both in Ruchnius and in Gashmius.
00:08:25.144 --> 00:08:38.342
We need the war, we need the warriors, we need the guns, we need the ammo, but the war goes on in heavens, the war goes on in the world of spirituality, of Kedusha.
00:08:38.342 --> 00:08:48.086
And listen to the words of these rats of Hamas and Gaza.
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And they say they were after Jews.
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It only sounds like the Nazis, yamashimo to say such a thing Unbelievable.
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But you know what our response is yeah, we go to war.
00:09:02.619 --> 00:09:04.476
Yeah, we go to war.
00:09:04.476 --> 00:09:09.582
And you want us to be sad, depressed, scared.
00:09:09.582 --> 00:09:12.019
No, we double our Torah efforts.
00:09:12.019 --> 00:09:30.418
We don't sit idly by watching the news while you post beheaded babies to TikTok, but we kick you to the curb and we run to the houses of worship and we run back to Hashem and we actually turn into the person that we want to become.
00:09:30.740 --> 00:09:39.868
Because it's in Ashtzara and, make no mistake about it, rambam, interestingly enough, does not put the laws of Ashtzara and Tainas.
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This was pointed out by the great Rabbi Lopiensky.
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He does not put it inside of the safer of Ahava with Tfila.
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That one may have thought.
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But my mom these puts these halachos in the book called Zamanim to a certain period of time of Tzara.
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Just like we had a time of happiness, we had a time of awe, repentance.
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It's now a time of war, it's a time of pain, and the response from the Jewish people it's always the same you come closer to Hashem, it shakes us awake to do even more, to be even real, more real, more practical, more original, more creative in our Torah war efforts.
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Like Mojah Rabbeino on the top of the mountain, we're like Yahushua at the bottom of the mountain in hand-to-hand combat.
00:10:43.057 --> 00:11:01.359
I believe also, it seems there's a crucial idea from Yubiruchim to say at this time that it takes bravery to have imuna, meaning to say it's much easier for us to call imuna where we just say, yeah, it's happening, but we don't really want to look.
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It takes bravery to acknowledge horrible torturing hostages and pain and bloodshed.
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It takes bravery.
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I would not suggest looking at these horrible images, definitely not without some sort of filter, as it will keep you awake at night and depress your soul.
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Souls just can't process certain things.
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But don't deny what's happening.
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Have bravery to acknowledge what's happening and have bravery to stand up.
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Well, I may be a pasty white Yashiva boy like some of my friends, but we can get pretty feisty when need be.
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And just like every other nation that attacked the Jewish people throughout history, they ended up with nothing more than an exhibit in the Museum of Natural History.
00:11:54.514 --> 00:12:11.258
The same thing is going to happen to Amos, to all these nations that try to come up and destroy the Jewish people, destroy this great miracle that we still exist.
00:12:12.868 --> 00:12:19.485
Yeah, this all ends the same way we, when you lose, you made your move, y'all are finished.
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Let the bombs rain, because this nation is one and we are indivisible.
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So now we stand up Like Moshe, I'm like Yahushua.
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We support the troops.
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Maybe we become troops Down in hand to hand combat, but with bravery and with integrity, with determination, with grit, with a will that we will not stop until evil is eradicated.
00:13:02.905 --> 00:13:13.248
We move forward with double the amount of Torah, with double the amount of mitzvahs becoming the people we really want to become, because maybe Elo wasn't even enough.
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Like this may wake you up.
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It may wake me up.
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It might actually say stop with the sinning and let's go.
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So that's what it is and that's our response To not deny what's happening, to see evil for what it is, to stomp on it, to destroy it and to stand up for the mandas.
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Kol amyarit k'ashem huel akim ve'enoid milvado that there is only one God, and when you mess with one Jewish person, you mess with all of us.
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So am Yisraelchai ve'od avinuchai, you made your move, and now it's time for our revenge.
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So look out, because here we come.
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