A Collection of Chanukah Thoughts

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B'ahavat Yisrael,
K'Cholmim


A Rosh HaShanah Message from Rav Milston

Time to Come Home - A Rosh Hashana message from Rav Milston

This year promises to be a very different Rosh Hashana for me. Tomorrow, I go to Miluim, and at present that is where I will be until Erev Sukkot.

I have never spent the Yamim Noraim in the Army, away from the family, and ever since I received the communication from the army, a day has not passed without me or my family thinking about Rosh Hashana 5764.

My feelings when putting on the Uniform of the IDF are well known to all. I truly feel that when a Jew in this day and age has his own army, and is in his own land, with the real ability to defend his people - then we are looking at a real form of redemption. For me, being part of the Israeli army is not simply doing my duty as a citizen, but it is taking part in the process of geula.

How many Jews over the years would have dreamed the reality that I live every day? I work in the holiest place on earth - in the Old City of Yerushalayim. I live in the exact same area of Eretz Yisrael that my forefathers did - Gush Etzion, and I have the ability to defend my people and play a part in Malchut Yisrael.

There are many that will cynically brush aside my words, but to me my uniform is truly "Bigdei Malchut" a real symbol of our strive towards redemption.

Recently, there have been many who have openly criticized our soldiers. Firstly, I must emphasize that no one can support the actions of soldiers who loot, and manipulate their positions for the wrong reasons. Their actions are a disgrace to say the least, and these people must be made to punished in the courts for their crimes. However, the situation should also be seen in the right perspective.

Close to forty thousand soldiers were called up to miluim during the Pessach period, at present, as far as I am aware, there are thirty five cases of "looting" under investigation. I myself heard stories that relay quite a different picture. I have friends who served in Jenin, who cleaned up houses after having been in them. I have friends who paid with their own money for any damage caused.

I am not naive, I do not only see the good, and I cannot be complacent about our faults. But it is both manipulative and unfair to ignore the wider picture. Our army is probably the most moral humane army in the world. How many lives have we lost because we do not "carpet-bomb", because we do not automatically shoot when women and children are in the area. This does not mean that we cannot improve, deadly mistakes have been made. We can and we must strive to excel in our morality, but to hear the preaching of the world is unbelievable if not ludicrous.

Yet, I have long given up trying to explain Israel to the world. What hurts most of all is when Jews, living in the diaspora, with little to no understanding of the situation in reality, make judgments publicly against Israel. How many of our moral judges in the Diaspora have served a day in our army? How many know what to live in Israel is?

Travel to work not knowing how the day will develop?

Israel is not only the only democracy in the region, it is probably one of the greatest democracies of the world. I never experienced internal analysis and self criticism when I lived in England to the degree that it exists here. We don't need people in the diaspora preaching to us, and then going on with their normal lives, whilst we fight every day for survival. Whilst we build brick by brick, road by road , house by house - our country. There is so much debate and critique in our country, criticism from Diaspora Jewry is both superfluous and damaging.

If any of you have doubts about our army and what it represents, I have none. When I put on my uniform it is with pride, it is with excitement, it is with the knowledge that I am part of something that is greater than great. I enter my miluim with the knowledge that I may not make it home for Rosh Hashana, but with the belief that for every second that I wear my uniform, I am performing a mitzva. Can there be no greater thing to do in these Days of Awe than serve your country?! We are told during the days of repentance, that we must strive to do many Mitzvot, yet I have it easier than most, because I will be serving my people in my land, for every second of those days.

But for those of you in the Diaspora, I have an additional message.

During the vacation, I traveled with my wife for a number of days. Whilst staying in a hotel in Yerushalayim , I overheard a conversation between two Jews visiting from the Diaspora. One was explaining to his fellow how on the previous day he had shouted at an Israeli. He had told the Israeli that: "We should be thankful that I am in your country visiting".

I cannot come to terms with that statement. We should be thankful to this man?!! Is it only our country?! Is it not his country too?!! Who should thank who?!! Who lives in their real homeland, who defends yearly their people, who strives towards real redemption?! The fact that people visit Israel is good, and should be encouraged, but at the same time that is what they are meant to do. It is the duty of every Jew to live in Israel, we appreciate the support, but let us not lose perspective.

This is our country, it belongs to those in the Diaspora as much as to those in Israel. The responsibility for bringing geula is upon all of us. If Jews in the Diaspora feel that improvements must be made, (and they must) then the solution is both obvious and simple. Come and help. Come and serve in our army. Come and make the country more religious. Bring your children and your families. Bring your capital, your expertise. Bring yourselves.

Sometimes I feel that people living in the diaspora have forgotten that it is a station not a destination.

There is so much to do, so come and help. We can all write letters, we can all criticize. The easiest thing in the world is to find fault. Yet here in Israel we are not interested in criticism per say, we are interested in finding fault and doing something about it.

The time has come, the time is now. Let the year of 5764 be the year of our final redemption. Let the year be a year when all of the Jews around the world buy a one way ticket, it is time to come home. Israel is the only home of the Jewish people - make no mistake about it.

Kol Dodi Dofek.

Ketiva VeChatima Tova
Rav Milston