By Rabbi Nachum Danzig

26 Kislev 5784

Parshat Vayeshev speaks of Yaakov settling down to live with his family in peace in Eretz Israel. Rashi notes that the Torah has already told us that Yaakov has settled in Israel. Rashi brings a midrash about this extra emphasis that Yaakov was sitting in the land, dwelling in the land of his fathers:

ביקש יעקב לישב בשלווה. קפץ עליו רוגזו של יוסף.  צדיקים מבקשים לישב בשלווה !? אומר הקדוש ברוך הוא לא דיין לצדיקים מה שמתוקן להם לעולם הבא, אלא שמבקשים לשב בשלווה בעולם הזה

Yaakov had a hard twenty years and just wants to be allowed to dwell in peace now. But the Midrash criticizes Yaakov for trying to relax because it’s not the job of the zaddik to try to relax. And inasmuch as every Jew strives to be a zaddik this applies to us as well. We cannot relax and this is because we have a mission; we are servants of God; we are His shlichim; we have tasks and duties to perform constantly. Each person according to his ability, needs to serve God and serve the Jewish people and serve the world at large and cannot just relax. We cannot opt out.

Our thoughts of course move to our soldiers who are certainly not sitting in peace and trying to rest. They are serving God by defending the people of Israel. Protecting the people of Israel is doing God’s work. May God protect them!

We are definitely in a trying time right now. We are in a time of judgment – so many people were killed and tortured on October 7th and are still being killed and tortured. I mean of course the soldiers who are sometimes casualties in the war. I also mean the civilians being killed in acts of terror on the home front.  We are certainly experiencing a time of strict judgment. There are still hostages being held and tortured. This is a time of strict judgment.

The Talmud (Menachin 41a) describes how Rav Ketina was avoiding the mitzvah of tzitzit and criticizes him for it, saying:

בזמן דאיכא ריתחא ענשינן

The Talmud says that in times of strict judgement, then even avoiding the observance of an optional Mitzvah ( מצווה קיומית ) like tzizit can bring about the opposite of reward, ח”ו.  It can take away God’s Divine protection, ח”ו. 

The army has actually seen a great uptick in the desire of soldiers to put on tzitzit. I don’t think that most of the soldiers know this Talmudic saying but every Jew in his soul is connected to God and to Torah and intuitively knows that this is the time to wear tzitzit. 

And this reminds me of a kabbalistic idea,

ג’ דרגין אינון מתקשרין דא ברא, קב”ה אורייתא וישראל.(הזוה”ק אחרי ע”ג,) 

God, Torah and Am Israel are all one. Based on this idea, the Hassidic masters explain that the command to love God includes within it the command to love the Torah and to love one’s fellow Jew. These are called the three loves: the love of God, the love of Torah, and the love of another Jew. 

Love of God is not enough. Without the love of Torah and the love of one’s fellow, one’s love of God will not endure. But where the love of one’s fellow exists, it will bring one to the love of God and love of Torah. 

If a Jew loves God without loving his fellow Jew there is something lacking in his love of God. But if a Jew does acts of kindness to other Jews and loves other Jews this will eventually lead him to the love of Torah and the love of God. Thus loving one’s fellow Jew is the fundamental teaching of Torah.

Baruch HaShem we are seeing greater and greater love from one Jew to his neighbor. There is no greater love for one’s fellow Jew than risking one’s life to protect his fellow Jew. I think that the soldiers are teaching us to love one another better.  Just as we were exiled because of unbounded hatred.  So the redemption will come through unbounded love of our fellow Jews.