Women and Redemption
Right in the midst of the war (which the government insists on calling an operation, probably for economic reasons), when we were agitated, exhausted, and most of all tired, I received a completely different call from the many calls that flooded me during those difficult days.
One woman, whose name I will not mention, asked to organize a women's meeting where we would brainstorm advice on how to bring the Messiah. To be honest, the idea made me a little laugh and I wasn't in the mood to laugh. But the woman insisted.
Want more news, videos and stories? Join the Haredim 10 WhatsApp channel >>
""Look," she said gently, but assertively. "There are a lot of initiatives and they all treat the symptoms. They surround the soldiers with warmth and love. They pray for them and learn for their sake and, in fact, for our sake, but no one wants to deal with the essence – the root of the problem – the exile.".
""Sages said that thanks to women we were redeemed from Egypt, I didn't say that. So it's time to gather women and think together about how to actually bring the Messiah.".
I wasn't laughing anymore, but I had a hard time understanding how to do it. I told her I would think about what she said, and in the meantime I listened.
I sat down to listen to Rebbetzin Yemima who ended her lesson with the words: "Girls, we need a Messiah!""
I listened intently to Rebbetzin Eliyahu's lecture, whose motto was "Until when?!", the exile of course.
I eagerly read the words of Ms. Adina Bar-Shalom, who very much wants to fulfill the will of her father, the Gratuitous Rabbi, and unite the ranks of the people, because only in this way will the Messiah come.
I listened to Michal Peretz, whose husband is the Chief Military Rabbi, and I didn't miss Rabbis Gerlitzky and Butman. I even knew what Rachel Bolton's reaction would be.
All the women I mentioned and many others are active and enterprising women, and it would indeed be right to gather them all around one round table in order to hold a ceremony of advice or, in professional language, to hold a "brainstorming session" that might succeed in producing an original and "big" idea that will lead us to fulfill our mission - to bring our righteous Messiah.
The war is over (at least as of this writing) and the meeting did not come to fruition. But despite this, I would hope that someone would take up the gauntlet and make sure it takes place. The spirit that has been blowing through the people for the past two months has been a rare spirit of unity that has proven even to the last skeptics among us that we are capable of doing this, capable of uniting and actually bringing the Messiah.
Women and dances
This coming Monday we will celebrate the Feast of the Daughters of Israel, about which it is said that "there were no days as good for Israel as the fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur, when the daughters of Jerusalem go out in white vessels, carrying them." They go out and do the work in the vineyards.
But why? What brings women to dance in the vineyards? And in general, what is this holiday? It is clear that this is not Valentine's Day in the format customary among those who have not yet been blessed with observing the Torah and mitzvot.
Okay. So that's it. This holiday is a holiday of the Torah. "The daughters of Zion came and saw King Solomon, in the crown that his mother had given him on the day of his wedding." His wedding day is the day of the giving of the Torah, the day on which our wedding with the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, was held.
Wait a minute. The women are coming out to watch this wedding. Why them? Why not the men who are obligated to learn Torah? Because even in the giving of the Torah, it was the women who preceded the men. "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob," and only then "and you shall say to the children of Israel." Because of the unique virtue of women and their precedence in the wedding of the Knesset of Israel with God, a special holiday was set for them on Tu B’Av – the day when "the Sihera will be established in peace," and everyone knows which people are likened to the full moon on Tu B’Av.
On this holiday, women demonstrate a rare unity. They go out in "borrowed white vessels." All of them are the same color and each one helps and lends to her friend. To symbolize the unity among all of them. A unity that symbolizes extraordinary generosity and giving among women.
All of this has a central purpose. Tu B'Av is not just a holiday for the sake of a holiday. The purpose is to build houses in Israel and further increase the number of Torah students in the Jewish people.
This unity is intended to remind the entire nation, women and men alike, that we are one, special and united people who have a purpose in this world – to increase and magnify Torah, because it alone sustains the world.
The Sages use the word dance and for good reason. They do not write "dancing" in the vineyards, but "holot," because the dance, unlike the dance, is done in a circle. In unity, close together, face to face.
Women and B'Tselem'
And the two things are interdependent. The redemption that we await and are commanded to work for its arrival and the unity that is expressed on Tu B’Av – the holiday of the daughters of Israel, are interconnected. Unity around the joy of the Holy Torah is what will bring about redemption.
I read the criticism of one of our members who felt great shame during the war for being on the comfortable side of the battle, the one who did not pay the price in blood. She wrote that while the young people of the ultra-Orthodox community were killing themselves in the tent of Torah, their peers were killed on the battlefield and their blood soaked the ground in Gaza, which made her ashamed.
The author described with emotion the wonderful unity that has been revealed in these days, and there is no doubt about that. It is clear that everything must be done to preserve this unity in the days to come.
But certainly not out of a sense of inferiority or shame, and certainly not out of a loss of self-worth and recognition of the importance and necessity of the Holy Torah.
Yeshiva students who killed themselves in the tent of Torah should know that this is what is demanded of them at this time. The Givati Brigade Commander himself said it in very clear words. "In order to succeed in the campaign, we need you to sit down and learn." This was said by a military man, not a politician. Dozens and hundreds of soldiers at the front wrote and said the same thing to their brothers and friends on the home front.
And just as in the human body, each organ has its own function and it would be unthinkable for the head to decide to be a leg, so too in the people of Israel... In general, and not just in times of war, everyone has an important role to play and must do everything to fulfill it, without looking down on their neighbor and examining whether they are doing more or less.
Why resurface a debate that disappeared in the storm of battle and the rare unity that followed? What is the idea of finding a solution in the form of integrating the ultra-Orthodox into the Israeli public and eliminating the role of Torah scholars? What a shame!
Not only do Arabs have B'Tselem, we, the Haredim, also have our own 'B'Tselem.' Those among us, within the camp, place collective guilt on our army – the army of Torah scholars that sustains the world.
May the spirit of unity that prevailed here continue into the future, and may the connection between the soldiers of the House of David who meditate on the Torah and the soldiers of the IDF who sacrifice their lives in battle, continue and finally bring the longed-for peace that will only come when the King Messiah comes - "and they will all return to the true religion... and when the time comes, there will be no famine or war there" - soon in our days, Amen.
The writer is the owner of "My Choice", an event host, lecturer and radio broadcaster: [email protected]
Part of the column is adapted from the talks of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
