We are all familiar with the phenomenon of experts and commentators who will always explain why it is impossible. The world will not allow it, America will oppose it, a billion Muslims will rise up against us.
They presented convincing arguments as to why it is impossible to build settlements in Judea and Samaria and to apply sovereignty to East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. Why there is no chance of foreign embassies moving to Jerusalem. Why we are unable to defeat terrorism, and how powerless we are to prevent Iran's nuclear program.
Even after it has been proven time and again that these challenges are certainly possible, and that through determination and willingness to withstand pressure, we can establish facts on the ground and force the world to agree to the new reality - the same experts and commentators will still stand by and call every new challenge hopeless and impossible.
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And truly, these are not always false fears. Sometimes the expected resistance is supposed to be difficult, and the question is whether to shy away or stand up against it.
A matter of faith
There is no objective answer to these dilemmas. It is all a matter of faith. Those with little faith will retreat in the face of the slightest difficulty and will quickly conclude that it is impossible to advance toward the goal. In contrast, people of faith and fortitude will not be deterred by even the greatest difficulties. They will continue to walk and advance, even though those around them will say that they are banging their heads against the wall – and in the end, they will break through the wall.
Let us go back a hundred years, to the communist Soviet Union. Judaism faced a cruel, uninhibited regime; a regime capable of tearing a person from his home and family and executing him without a word. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Rayatz (Rabbi Yosef-Yitzhak Schneerson), stood up to him. Without weapons, without public support, without tools to fight the evil regime.
And is there a fight more hopeless than this?
The Rebbe established an underground network of determined and dedicated Hasidim, who scattered throughout the country and tried to preserve the embers of Judaism. They opened synagogues, Torah studies, and purification baths. They ensured kosher slaughter, circumcision, and the supply of holy utensils and Jewish literature.
The Rebbe was warned that he was playing with fire, but he did not flinch, and thus he instructed his followers - to surrender their souls in practice, without fear or apprehension. The activists were caught, imprisoned, exiled and even executed. But in the place of one activist who was caught, another came.
The breaking point of evil
The Rebbe was also arrested, and for a moment it seemed that there was no power in the world that could prevent the evil regime from carrying out its plan and, God forbid, from taking the thread of his life. Here a miracle occurred, the power of which is still difficult to estimate today – in the end, the Rebbe was released, and the days of his release, the 12th-13th of Tammuz, became the holiday of redemption.
It is clear today that the breaking point of the kingdom of evil was in an event that seemed marginal at the time - the release of the Rebbe from prison. The regime, which had ruthlessly eliminated ministers and counts, public leaders and religious priests - was defeated and surrendered in the face of a Jewish rabbi, broken in body but huge in spirit.
The holiday of redemption illustrates the power of faith. If only we are determined and fight with dedication and determination for the things essential to the existence of our people – God will be with us and we will prevail, despite all obstacles.
