Jewish Dependence
Gary Cooperberg
May 6, 2003
B"sd
As I said my morning prayers as usual in the Machpela building in Hebron, the burial site of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, I contemplated the incredible miracle of Jewish return home. The building in which we were praying is over two thousand years old, dating back to the time of Herod. In such a location you can actually feel ancient history. Looking about at my fellow worshipers I could not help but imagine how we are all participants in the most incredible saga in human history. How fortunate is our generation to have witnessed the beginning of fulfillment of Biblical prophesy.
At this very location Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would come to pray. In the time of Moses, Caleb ben Yephuna came here to pray for Divine assistance to stand up to the wicked testimony of the spies. And his descendent, King David, who first set up his kingdom in Hebron, would often pray here as well. Throughout the centuries Jews would risk their lives just to be able to offer prayers even outside of the building. How can one not feel a tremendous sense of awe to be able to pray in such a place and know that it truly belongs to us once again?
The Creator of the Universe is the One who determines world events. He causes nations to come to war and he determines who world leaders will be. It was He who chose our Father, Abraham, as His friend, and determined that it will be through his children, the children of Israel, that His world will be redeemed. We were not ready to fulfill our holy role in those days, so G-d created the mighty Roman empire which He used to destroy the Temple and send His people into exile. Although we were scattered all over the world and remained a detested minority wherever we went, the fact that throughout two millennia we were able to maintain our identity as Jews gives proof to our Divine destiny. In addition to the fact that exile and time could not take our identity away from us, neither could the fact that we were constantly forced to move from country to country as no refuge ever became a permanent home for Jews. We were beaten, murdered and expelled from nearly every temporary haven we had. Yet every great nation and empire which oppressed us rose and fell, disappearing from the world while the Jewish nation still remains intact.
Looking around me at this holy site in Hebron I could not help but marvel at the reality that all of us praying here are part of the miraculous return of the Jewish People from a very long exile. Jews from every nation in the world, speaking every language known to man, are, once again communicating with one another in the ancient Hebrew tongue. To be a part of this miracle and to recognize it as such is, in and of itself, a humbling privilege. I cannot begin to express the awe that I feel when I see my children, who have grown up in Israel living lives as complete Jews, having been granted the opportunity to continue what was cut off over two thousand years ago! My son, a torah scholar at a hesder yeshiva, is proudly serving in the IDF, defending our country in the spirit of King David and the Maccabees.
No one can deny the unique reality of the modern state of Israel. Yet many of us are unable to come to terms with the reality of Divine intervention which enabled this state to be reborn and to continue to exist for fifty-five years. As we celebrate another Independence Day here, in Israel, it truly hurts to observe the attempt to integrate foreign values into the unique holiness of the Jewish State.
Our Prime Minister constantly speaks of painful concessions he is prepared to make for a real peace. Yet it would never occur to him to make those concessions to G-d rather than to Bush or Arafat. Were he truly prepared to make painful concessions he would give Bush a new roadmap with clear directions as to how the Arabs can most expeditiously leave Israel. It is inconsistent with the concept of a sovereign Jewish State to as much as consider raising a foreign entity in its midst, peaceful or otherwise. Rather than spend so much money, exhaust so much manpower, and risk so many lives by our intricate efforts to curb terror, which can never completely stop it anyway, why is it so hard to understand that we are in a state of war which will not end until we choose to win?
The concept of independence is not really a Jewish one. It too is something we borrowed from the United States, along with the concept of democracy. We can and should never be truly independent. Our existence requires that we recognize our dependence upon our Creator. Independence implies that we make our own choices and govern our own destiny. This is just not the case. We will never have true peace and satisfaction with life until we recognize our dependence upon the G-d of Israel and dedicate all of our efforts to serving Him.
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