And what of David, Melech Yisrael? The Psalmist himself? He went out to battle throughout much of his tormented life with a Torah scroll at his side. He personally and consistently led his men in battle.
The Maccabees were kohanim in the Beit HaMikdash; Matityahu was the Kohen Gadol and his son Judah was a kohen as well. But before they could serve their role in the Temple, they led the military revolt against the Greek onslaught in the days of Chanukah.
And who was a greater sage than Rabbi Akiva? Didn’t he lead his students – yes, his students – to war under the leadership of Bar Kochba against the Roman occupation of Israel?
Never before in Jewish history have religious Jews sat in the beit midrash rather than defend Jewish lives in our own land. Are we any less threatened today than we were during Bar Kochba’s times? Is there any less reason today to defend Israel, where the world’s largest Jewish population lives and thrives, than there was in the days of the Maccabees?
Just a few weeks ago an elite group of haredi soldiers went on a dangerous mission to eliminate a terrorist cell ready to wreak havoc on Jewish lives. This group of soldiers demonstrated, as many others have over the years, that Torah and Eretz Yisrael not only can but must simultaneously be preserved, protected and consecrated.
Would that all Jews, wherever they live, took note. God did not gift his people with the “holy land” of Brooklyn or Monsey or Lakewood. He gave us the Land of Israel and it is there that He expects us to find the means to live peacefully and respectfully together.
History demands that we do at least that much. For our God is a God of history. Knowledge of history is essential, as is knowledge of Torah and prayer.
How do we know we are one? Because we know what we share. Even with the divergence of our practices, we share a history.
The modern thinker George Santayana famously said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” We Jews, for whom history is present and future, should heed his words.
