The Community vs the Individual | Rabbi Haggai Lundin | Beit Midrash

Jewish Laws and Thoughts
Subjects of Jewish Thougts

קטגוריה משנית

In an attempt to persuade me to participate in the planting ceremony for the hostages, one of the organizers told me that "the State of Israel has no right to exist if the hostages do not return". This sentence joins other pompous sentences such as "If the hostages do not return, it means that we lost the war" or "the families of the hostages are allowed to do everything" etc.

It is hard to teach music to the deaf, but I tried to explain anyway: there is a concept called "individual" and there is a concept called "community". With all the pain for each and every hostage and their family, there is something bigger: the existence of the entire Jewish people! If an agreement is signed that will keep Hamas in a position of power, it is a clear and immediate danger to all the Jews of the State of Israel. The lives of 136 kidnapped Jews are not more important than the lives of seven million Jews.

The forces behind these campaigns – which were also behind the Oslo Accords, the disengagement, the Shalit deal and refusal to be drafted – must be rejected by us. After all the good they brought to the people of Israel, they did receive Nobel Prizes, applause, money and positions of power – but those who paid the price are thousands of Jews who were murdered; October 7th is also a direct descendant of these people. When you are asked to join one of the initiatives for returning the hostages, check who is standing behind it: are the heroic families of Forum Tikva, whose message is to strengthen the IDF's fighting in order to pressure Hamas; or is the Kaplan Force?

We pray for the return of the hostages, and common sense also teaches that increasing military pressure will help bring them back; however, the existence of the State of Israel and the perpetuity of the Jewish people will not cease. Tens of thousands of Jews have been killed during the wars in Israel, and the people of Israel live - and will also continue to live this time.

The bad will pass.
The good will prevail.
With God's help.

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