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By Avrohom Rainitz, Beis Moshiach Magazine

It’s not easy to talk during these difficult times but rabbanim of communities don’t have the option to remain silent. Since the first reports about the war on Simchas Torah, Jews around the world are feeling confused and are seeking answers.

Despite being thousands of miles from the frontlines, in Crown Heights one feels the war atmosphere. The statement of Chazal “all Israel are guarantors for one another” has taken on new meaning. The fact that the war began in Tishrei, while thousands of guests from Eretz Yisrael were in Crown Heights, brought many halachic questions to Rabbi Yosef Yeshaya Braun, mara d’asra and member of the Badatz of Crown Heights. There were also questions in emuna and on the Torah perspective of the situation. Today too, weeks after the war began, he continues to receive complicated halachic queries from fellow rabbanim in Eretz Yisrael.

We spoke with Rabbi  Braun to hear words of chizuk. Despite the many days that have passed, the pain is enormous, and he choked up several times during the conversation.

How did you find out about the outbreak of war?

The first reports came to New York Shabbos morning, on Shemini Atzeres, but the moment I first began to realize the magnitude of what occurred was when I sat down to the Yom Tov meal and two people came to my sukka and said war had broken out. They had received a Tzav Shemone (an emergency reservist call-up) and they asked whether they should fly out immediately on Shabbos or wait until motzoei Shabbos which is Yom Tov Sheini.

I told them they should leave as soon as possible and they could publicize the answer in my name. A minute after they left the sukka, I caught myself – how did I send them away like that when they were going to the front? I rushed to call them back and asked that we say l’chaim and dance together. We danced and cried. They knew good and well where they were headed.

A few minutes later, someone else showed up with a question. His mother was alone in Eretz Yisrael and aside from him, there was nobody to help her. She had called several times and he wanted to know whether he could answer the phone on Shabbos. In response to my asking, he said that if he answered her call he could help her by pulling strings and arranging help for her.

Throughout Yom Tov, dozens of people came with questions. When I went to 770 for hakafos, the questions were nonstop. As I stood at the Rebbe’s bima in the middle of hakafos, my son came over with a list of questions that the women in the women’s section were asking.

As the questions kept coming in, I realized this wasn’t another military scuffle, but something on a different scale. Shocking.

The rabbanim in Eretz Yisrael have reported about very difficult questions they were asked.

Boruch Hashem, I wasn’t asked to pasken on the horrific questions which rabbanim in Eretz Yisrael need to pasken these days, but rabbanim, friends, contacted me to discuss and clarify the halacha. These were questions they never had to deal with and one just cries to read them. For example, one of my colleagues wrote me: Among the hostages taken by Hamas is the wife of a kohen. They took her and her two sons, three and five, into captivity. Hamas left the children on the border and they were found and rescued, but the woman was missing and was apparently taken captive. Her husband asked, after she is released, is she allowed to return to him as his wife when the halacha is that a captive is forbidden to a kohen. [As this was being written, Rabbi Braun reported to me that he was contacted by that rav who said the woman had been killed by the terrorists, may Hashem avenge her blood. AR]

The following question was sent to me by a rav in Eretz Yisrael, a very good, personal friend of mine: The army asked me what the Torah view is – if Hamas leaders were surrounding themselves with the hostages [as human shields], could they be bombed even though it would kill hostages?

What does one answer to such questions?

Fortunately, I wasn’t asked this question. I sent him a five-page article on the subject for him to read and decide.

These are definitely tough questions but to say the truth, although it is hard to find answers, in the end it’s possible. One needs to analyze, do research, contemplate and think, and answers can be found. There is another type of question which is much harder, for which I have no answer. I refer to questions about what happened – why did this happen, how did this happen, why on Simchas Torah, etc.

Some think they know and they have all sorts of explanations. Not only do they have all sorts of interpretations and explanations, and not only do they know earthly calculations, they also know heavenly calculations… I don’t know and I’m not looking to know. The Gemara says that when someone dies, the first three days are for crying, not for eulogies. Eulogies include lessons learned from what happened and regarding this, Chazal say the first three days are not appropriate for this. It’s a time to be pained over this horrifying event. Although weeks have passed since the start of the war, not all the dead have been buried, not to mention the hundreds of missing and kidnapped people. In the language of Torah this is called, “his dead is placed before him.” It’s not the time to look for answers.

And there are questions which cannot be answered. With 1400 Jews killed al kiddush Hashem, injured, tortured, widows and orphans, bereaved parents, we do not understand and one cannot explain it.

G-D LOVES US AND HAS MERCY ON US

Nevertheless, what can be said in response to the questions? Instead of dealing with what we don’t know and cannot know, we need to focus on what we do know. I’ll say it first in points and then I’ll try and explain.

We know that Hashem loves every Jew like parents who love their only child born to them in their old age.

We know that no evil descends from Above, but sometimes, the good is hidden, not apparent.

When we think about the Torah’s outlook, which is true and eternal, our reaction to all events will be completely different.

The Baal Shem Tov said that Hashem loves every Jew like parents who love their only child born to them in their old age. In addition, Hashem is also called “Merciful Father” which means the source of mercy. Last month [Tishrei], we emphasized again and again in our tefillos, beyond that of our daily tefillos, “Avinu Av HaRachaman.” In the Aseres Yimei Teshuva we added “Who is like you, Merciful Father,” and on Simchas Torah we said, “Merciful Father, do good with Your desire with Tziyon,” and in Yizkor we said again, “Merciful Father, who dwells up Above, with His prodigious mercies.”

We believe with complete faith that Hashem is not merely merciful but is a “Merciful Father,” the source of mercy. Sometimes, His mercy is in the upper, concealed realms. Therefore, we daven, “Merciful Father” and speak about the “upright, sincere pious ones… who gave their lives for the holiness of Your name.” We add the words, “who dwells up Above” because in situations like these, His great mercies dwell up Above and are not revealed below.

This is the first point we need to think about and really integrate into our psyches.

The second point is that we need to know and believe that no evil descends from Above. Furthermore, on the higher planes of true reality, everything is good. We repeat this point every year on the night of Tisha B’Av while crying over the tzaros and suffering that the Jewish people endured during the churban which were so horrifying that we say, “From the mouth of the Supernal no evil goes forth,” or as the Rebbeim put it, “No evil descends from Above.” This is part of the foundations of faith and it includes the saying, “Everything Hashem does is for the good.”

I know that it sounds shocking. How can we call these atrocities good? We don’t understand it, and it is hard to say it, but we need to believe it.

There is a Toldos Aharon Chassid by the name of Akiva Gruman who lost his young son. After the shiva, he learned Igeres HaKodesh in Tanya, chapter eleven, “L’haskilcha Binah” and read the moving and empowering words of the Alter Rebbe “that in truth, no evil descends from Above and everything is good.” The words touched him and he poured his emotions into a moving song with the words of the Alter Rebbe. When you hear it, the heart cries and the powerful words infuse you with encouragement.

The Alter Rebbe adds a very important point, that when we believe and internalize the belief that everything Hashem does is all good, this belief changes reality from hidden good to revealed good. So, it’s very important to talk about this point and internalize it, not only because it’s true but because it’s the way to change reality.

TRUSTING IN HASHEM FOR VISIBLE GOOD

You’ve spoken about what happened and how to look at this shocking event, but what about the uncertain future? Enemies are at the south and north and the residents of Eretz Yisrael are in danger of a multi-front war.

Along the lines of what we spoke about before, about what we don’t know and what we do know, as far as the future there’s more that we don’t know than we do know. At the same time, we do know that we can change the reality to open, revealed good: 1) with emuna that everything Hashem does is good, and 2) through simcha, and 3) with good thoughts and absolute trust that it will be open and revealed good.

I will emphasize that regarding the past, we are commanded and we have the ability to believe that everything is good. As for the future, we don’t need to accept the reality of a hidden good and we need to demand and cry out, “ad mosai” and also do everything we can, spiritually and materially, so that the situation will be openly good.

There are several spiritual things we can do to turn the hidden good into revealed goodness: 1) We mentioned what the Alter Rebbe says, that when we believe and internalize that no evil descends from Above and everything is good, “with this belief, everything really does become good, even openly.” 2) We have the ability to change reality with positive thinking in general and especially absolute trust that it will be visible, revealed goodness.

It’s a known thing that when you think thoughts of despair and depression, this itself causes us not to feel well. When a person thinks that way, he becomes hopeless. When you think positively, you become more happy and the person himself feels well. When he feels well, he radiates positivity and makes other people feel good too.

Spiritually, a positive thought has tremendous power to change reality, to change the future. This idea is sourced in several places and one of them is the verse in Tehillim, “One who trusts in Hashem, kindness surrounds him.” When trusting in Hashem that things will be openly good, this itself causes Hashem’s kindness to surround us.

This war broke out on Shemini Atzeres (Simchas Torah), right after we finished reciting “L’Dovid Hashem” for fifty days in a row. It has so many pesukim that are encouraging, and saying this felt like the refuah preceding the blow. We repeated that we have nothing to fear and that when “Hashem is the stronghold of my life, who shall I fear?” We said, “If a camp encamps against me, my heart shall not fear; if a war should rise up against me, in this I trust.”

As Chassidim, we are familiar with the saying of the Tzemach Tzedek, “Think positively and it will be good,” which was said to R’ Michoel Bliner who wanted a bracha for his son who was so critically ill that the doctors had given up. As he stood in the Rebbe’s room he thought: who know what’s happening now with him when the doctors said it was a matter of hours. Then the Rebbe told him to think positively.

The Chassid later said that not only did the child recover but even after that, any time there was some challenge involving his children, he would picture the Rebbe’s face and remember what he said, to think positively and it will be good, and so it was!

In the Igros Kodesh of the Rebbe Rayatz it has the complete wording of what the Tzemach Tzedek said. “Arouse the power of trust in Hashem with simple faith, that He, blessed be He, will save your son. Thought is effective. Think positively and it will be good.”

In an amazing sicha of the Rebbe, which was edited and printed in Likutei Sichos for parshas Shemos, volume 36, he explains that positive thinking is itself bitachon. The Rebbe stresses and differentiates between emuna and bitachon. Emuna is for the past, that what happened was all for the good. Bitachon is for the future, that a Jew strengthen his trust that it will be open, apparent good. As it says in Chovos HaLevavos, “The essence of bitachon is the serenity of the one who trusts, that his heart relies and trusts the One whom he trusts that He will do the good and proper thing for him.”

It’s important to stress that bitachon is casting one’s burden on Hashem, being sure that Hashem will help him even when there is no natural way, because as long as there is a natural way, it’s not bitachon but hope. In one of the sichos, the Rebbe quotes the Rebbe Rayatz, and is worth repeating here:

“One’s trust in G‑d can be called complete only when there is no shadow of an indication as to where help will come from, nor is there any physical source for it. People say that a drowning man clutches at a straw. But when there is still a straw to hang on to — that is, when there is still a shadow of a physical indication that one may yet be helped, even if only physically and even if only partially — this cannot yet be called a complete trust in G-d.

“When there is a shadow of an indication, what one has is hope (tikvah). This is the word that appears in the Scriptural phrase, es tikvas chut ha’shani (‘the cord of crimson thread’), where tikvah means ‘cord.’ The crimson thread served as a sign to indicate the house of Rachav, so that when the soldiers of the Children of Israel approached it they would know that they had to save the people who lived there. This sign is described by the above phrase, because even though it was a visible and overt sign, all kinds of things could happen to it — the cord could break, or the wind could blow it away, or whatever. Hence the use of the word tikvah (cord/hope), alluding to her hope that everything would work out well and that the cord of crimson thread would remain intact. For the term ‘hope’ is appropriate in relation to something that tangibly exists, like the straw of the man who is drowning in the ocean.

“By contrast, trust (bitachon) in G‑d is what one has when he is without even a shadow of an indication that he will be saved. He does not even have a straw to clutch at. He has only his trust in G‑d.”

The Rebbe Rayatz goes on to say:

“If even then, as he places his trust in G‑d, he is embittered and sad; a silent melancholy veils his face and whoever sees him can tell that his heart is burdened by a grievous anxiety, according to the teaching of our mentor, the Baal Shem Tov, when a person places his trust in G‑d but is agonized and worried and sighing, he has not yet attained a complete trust in G‑d. For when one’s trust in G‑d is complete, his unfavorable — or even (G‑d forbid) bad — situation should not affect his heart by causing it distress or, certainly, melancholy. Rather, he should do, according to the Torah and mortal understanding, whatever he is able to do, and place his trust in G‑d. He should not have even a shadow of a doubt that G‑d will help him, inasmuch as His Providence watches over every single created being […]. All their affairs and even all of their most trivial motions are under the eye of His specific supervision, and it is this Divine Providence that gives life and strength to every living being in the heavens and on earth.”

In Chassidic literature there are many stories that illustrate what true trust in Hashem is. One of the well-known stories is about the students of the Baal Shem Tov who were at an inn when a policeman entered and banged on the table and left. The innkeeper explained it was a sign from the poritz that they he had to pay the rent; otherwise, he would be thrown in prison. Although he didn’t have the money, nor any natural way of obtaining it, he was absolutely calm, trusting that Hashem would help him.

When the policeman came a third time with a final warning, the innkeeper left for the poritz’s estate. The talmidim asked him whether he had obtained the money. He said he hadn’t but he trusted in Hashem to provide him with the money.

The talmidim watched him as he walked and saw him stop near a passing carriage and the farmer sitting in it exchanged some words with the innkeeper and the farmer moved on. A few minutes later, the farmer returned, spoke to the innkeeper again and gave him money.

Afterward, the talmidim found out that the farmer wanted to close a deal with him and pay him. The Jew wanted the sum he owed the poritz which the farmer was unwilling to pay. At first he drove away but then he came back, knowing him as an upstanding person and he gave him the entire sum.

There is much that can be learned from this story. What pertains to us now is the absolute serenity of the innkeeper even though he had no natural means of obtaining the enormous amount of money that day! That’s real bitachon!

Now too, we need to strengthen our trust in Hashem. Although we don’t know how it is possible to annihilate Hamas and save the hostages, Hashem is kol yachol (omnipotent). We need to trust that there will be an outright victory with our wiping out our enemies and the unconditional release of all the hostages, with no damage from missiles, etc.

It is important to stress that it is Hashem who will save us, not the government, not the army, just Hashem! If, previously, there were those who relied on the army, well, recent events have shown that although it is the most technologically advanced army, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit alone, says Hashem,” and “if Hashem does not guard the city, the guard watches for naught.”

It says, “We will no longer call the work of our hands a god.” We usually think about some idol that idol worshipers bowed to, but the truth is, any reliance on the army is a type of idol worship, “the work of our hands” that we consider a god.

We need to know that “the L-rd your G-d is the One who goes forth in the midst of your camp” and He is the one who gives us the big victories in all of Israel’s wars. He is the one who will give us a complete victory this time too. We need to pray that this victory will be the final stage before the Geula shleima.

EACH OF us CAN AND MUST STRENGTHEN TRUST IN HASHEM

This absolute trust sounds like something that pertain only to people on a high level. What can we do?

You might be right that this absolute trust is a very high level. Indeed, it is said in the name of the Baal Shem Tov that when Hashem wants to punish someone, he takes away his bitachon, so it’s not easy to attain absolute trust. However, if we assume we are unable to be so trusting all the time, we can definitely achieve this bitachon occasionally by trying to think good thoughts when we think to ourselves and also in how we talk to others. It’s also important to be among people with bitachon who see and talk positively, and not with gloomy people.

Hanging around gloomy people is never healthy, especially these days. In a certain way, someone who thinks negatively and talks negatively is “helping” Hamas win, because that’s one of their goals, to fight us psychologically too, and to make us afraid and despair. We need to fight that and be optimistic, baalei bitachon, and b’simcha!

BEING B’SIMCHA TO HELP THE HOSTAGES

It’s one thing to be optimistic and to have bitachon in Hashem, but how is it possible to be happy at this time?

It says in the holy Zohar that the divine flow that we receive from Hashem is given to us in accordance with our state of mind. When we are joyous, Hashem provides for us with a glowing face, and when we are sad, Hashem provides for us accordingly.

The Rebbe quoted this Zohar during the Yom Kippur War. Like today, the state of mind of Jews at that time was very down. The Rebbe said we need to make every effort to be happy despite the difficulty, because when it’s difficult for us, we need Hashem to smile at us even more with visible goodness.

The Rebbe demanded being b’simcha to the point that when the elder Chassidim went to the Rebbe with a pidyon nefesh on behalf of Klal Yisrael, the Rebbe was not pleased with the wording. He said, “Why do you need to draw down on me a state of melancholy? I am presently in a state of joy! This is a time to take pidyonos? Let them go to the tziyun and read the pidyon!”

As for your question, you are right that it’s difficult to be happy in these situations but since Hashem demands this of us, He certainly gives us the ability. Since this entire war began on Simchas Torah, when we are commanded to be happy, and continued throughout the final days of Tishrei which are also days of joy when we do not say tachanun, surely Hashem wants us to be happy and He gives us all the kochos to be able to do so.

When Hashem commanded, “rejoice on your festivals,” it’s a mitzva for everyone and for every year, even 5784. Hashem did not make 5784 an exception.

Our friend R’ Nesanel Leib of France, who lost his son at the beginning of the war, publicly said on Simchas Torah, before he knew about his son’s death, that he was going on tahalucha to bring joy to Jews in other shuls. When he saw that people were having a hard time dancing because of the news, he said to them, “Whoever doesn’t cry at this time, it’s a sign that his neshama is flawed, but if you don’t dance, you don’t understand what a Jew is.”

Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin  recounted in the name of the Chassid, R’ Asher, a relative of the Tzemach Tzedek, a powerful story about the holy Rabbi Meir of Premishlan. Once, his daughter was very sick and when it came time for hakafos on Simchas Torah night, he was very joyous. People went over to him and told him to pray for his daughter who was in critical condition. The tzaddik said, “Ribono shel olam, You commanded us to blow the shofar on Rosh Hashana and Meir’l did so; You commanded us to fast on Yom Kippur and Meir’l did so; You commanded us to sit in a sukka on Sukkos and Meir’l did so. You have made Meir’l’s daughter sick and Meir’l must accept this with joy because ‘man is obligated to bless… just as he blesses for the good,’ and the Gemara says, ‘to accept it with joy.’ However, now we are required to rejoice on Simchas Torah and the halacha states, ‘we don’t mix one simcha with another.’” The sick girl began to sweat and was healed.

But how can we rejoice when thousands of families are sitting shiva for their cruelly murdered relatives while hundreds of other families don’t know what happened to their loved ones?

As Jews, we are sometimes required to balance two opposing and even contradictory psychological states. That’s because alongside the simcha that is required of us, when doing mitzvos of the Torah, that same Torah commands us to feel pain over the tzaros of the Jewish people and to bear the burden. This is why, even if we personally were not hurt by these atrocities, according to Torah we should be deeply pained because we identify and share in the pain of the families that were affected.

At the same time, in order to bring some healing to their pain and to fix the current reality and make it better, we need to exert ourselves and have simcha. This simcha, which doesn’t come from a frivolous attitude, G-d forbid, and doesn’t demean the memory of those who perished, is just the opposite; it’s a product of avodas Hashem, with great difficulty, which is meant to change the difficult reality to a good one.

ADDING IN TORAH STUDY AND SAYING TEHILLIM

What else can we do to change the situation?

To counter the “hands are the hands of Eisav” which we saw in its full ugliness in recent events, we need to intensify the “voice is the voice of Yaakov.” Our koach is in our mouth and we should be intensifying the sound of Torah study, the sound of tefillos and Tehillim.

Sometimes, one of our big problems is that we don’t believe in ourselves. As Jews, we have enormous powers and one chapter of our Tehillim can cause miracles and wonders on the battlefield. The Rebbe Rayatz writes in his reshimos in the name of the Tzemach Tzedek, “If you knew the power of verses of Tehillim and their effect up Above, you would say them constantly! Know that chapters of Tehillim shatter all barriers and rise up, elevation upon elevation, without any interference, and prostrate before the Master of the worlds and have their effect with kindness and mercy.” Each one of us has this koach! Just sit and say Tehillim and you have the power to accomplish great things.

I heard from Rabbi Yossi Paltiel who was a little boy before the Yom Kippur War that when he heard the Rebbe’s sichos about the special power that little children have to annihilate the enemy, he concluded that he, a little boy from Crown Heights, was considered a great tzaddik by Hashem!

He’s definitely right. Children have powers like big tzaddikim, but not just children. We too, when we say chapters of Tehillim, have enormous powers. If only we appreciate the power we have and use it!

OUR TIME IS PRECIOUS AND CAN HELP DECIDE THE BATTLE – WE CANNOT WASTE IT

Some are in cities far from the front or even out of the country and they want to feel a part of the painful situation. They constantly read reports about what is going on in Eretz Yisrael. Is this a good thing?

It’s hard to tell people not to read the news at all, although that would be best and what should be done. In situations like these, it’s natural for people to want to be connected and know what is going on. Someone who doesn’t want to know what’s happening, well, that’s a problem too. But it’s definitely worthwhile to minimize the news that you read for two reasons. One, your reading the news doesn’t help anyone. Two, while you read the news, you could have actually helped by learning Torah or saying Tehillim.

This is being said particularly to those who are addicted to the news, who refresh the news pages every few minutes so they won’t miss the latest information. It’s an addiction and it’s important to deal with this as soon as possible.

Today, they say that in Eretz Yisrael there is no front and rear, because we are all on the frontlines. This is definitely true for all Jews; we are all soldiers on the frontlines of this war. There are soldiers with weapons on the Gaza border and soldiers with Torah and Tehillim in Crown Heights. Think about it – just as soldiers on the frontlines don’t pause in the middle of fighting to read the news, we too, cannot stop in the middle of learning or saying Tehillim to read news updates.

In one of the sichos, the Rebbe says that wasting time on the news is contrary to intellect! Because all the information you will get from news updates cannot help the soldiers on the frontlines, but if you say a chapter of Tehillim or learn Torah and do mitzvos, you can actively help the success of the war!

They tell about the Chassid, R’ Heishke Gansbourg who went to the Rebbe Rayatz in New York before 1948, when war broke out. His father had written to him, “You have two brothers fighting on the front lines now and your blood isn’t redder than theirs. Return to Eretz Yisrael!”

He asked the Rebbe Rayatz and was told: A deserter is not a soldier who is not on the front lines; a deserter is a soldier who is not fulfilling his duty. Your brothers have a job over there; your job is over here. Remain here and do your job!

We need to know we have a job. If it’s the tmimim, they need to learn full sedarim and add to it. If it’s Anash, they need to increase learning Torah and doing mitzvos and saying Tehillim. All this, obviously, along with adding in the Rebbe’s mivtzaim which are all permeated with the main point, the Besuras HaGeula and kabbolas pnei Moshiach Tzidkeinu. This is our job. If we do it, then we are soldiers fulfilling our job. If we don’t do it, we are deserters in war time!

This year, we say chapter 122 in Tehillim, the Rebbe’s chapter. On the pasuk, “Our feet were standing within your gates, Yerushalayim.” Rabi Yehoshua ben Levi says, “What is this that is written, our feet were standing within your gates, Yerushalayim; who caused our feet to stand in war – the gates of Yerushalayim who were occupied with Torah.” In order to win in war, we need to increase Torah study!

With Hashem’s help, we will soon  see a mighty, miraculous victory in war and the main thing is, may we immediately merit the hisgalus of the Rebbe MH”M which will be the Geula shleima. As the Rebbe said in his letter about picturing the Geula when he was a child, “such a redemption and in such a manner that through it will be understood all of the suffering of galus, the decrees and the slaughters… in a manner that with a whole heart and complete understanding ‘he shall say on that day, I thank you Hashem that you were wrathful to me.’” May it be teikef u’miyad mamash!

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