Messianic | Geulah Brachamim Program – By Pinchas Winston
ON THE SURFACE of it, the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 was a completely secular, non-Torah event. It may have been the culmination of efforts that go back to the Vilna Gaon, but it was orchestrated and carried out by Jews who either did not believe in Torah, or God Himself. The American Constitution mentions God. The Israeli one does not.
Eretz Yisroel is a holy land. It was given to the Jewish people by God as a place to live by Torah and to serve Him. The Torah warns us that living on the land as the Canaanites once did would lead to exile, and did at least three times. How then can the formation of a SECULAR state by irreligious leaders be part of a God-driven, RELIGIOUS redemption?
It’s an important question. It is even more important to point out that Jewish history is RARELY straightforward. If that was true when God STILL spoke to us DIRECTLY, how much more so is it the case during times of “hester panim,” when He doesn’t speak to us at ALL, at least not in any DEFINITE way.
And, if this was true in YOSEF’S time, how much more true must it be in OURS, especially since it says:
All that happened to Yosef will happen to Tzion. (Tanchuma, Vayaishev 10)
Yosef’s brothers could not comprehend his role in the future of the Jewish people because of the way he appeared and acted before them. They rejected him, and saw him as a danger to the future Jewish nation. So, as great and as holy and as well-intentioned as they were, the brothers kidnapped Yosef and sold him into slavery.
That is what happened to Yosef.
What is happening to Tzion?
According to the GR”A, the UN vote was crucial. He said that if the Jewish people do not merit a miraculous redemption, then it has to be with the consent of the nations of the world. The UN certainly made that a lot easier than it would have been had Jewish diplomats been forced to approach each nation separately for its consent. The UN vote however would not have been favorable had it not been for President Harry S. Truman.
President Truman is famous for a few things, two of which were his decision to use nuclear bombs against Japan, which effectively brought an end to World War II, and his victorious bid for a second term in office over the favored Thomas E. Dewey in 1948. His legendary upset victory over Dewey is routinely invoked by underdog presidential candidates, but it also kept him in power for the vote on Israel’s acceptance into the UN.
Truman became President after President Franklin D. Roosevelt died less than three months into his fourth term in the White House. Truman had replaced Vice-President Henry A. Wallace as Roosevelt’s running mate in 1944, after he gained national prominence as head of the wartime Truman Committee. Had this not been the case, then he would not have been in office on May 14, 1948, when Israel declared statehood.
Unlike FDR, who was considered to be mildly anti-Semitic, and other American leaders who did not want to rock the Arab boat, Truman was unusually sympathetic to the need for a Jewish homeland. He said:
“Hitler had been murdering Jews right and left. I saw it, and I dream about it even to this day. The Jews needed some place where they could go. It is my attitude that the American government couldn’t stand idly by while the victims [of] Hitler’s madness are not allowed to build new lives.” (Harry S. Truman)
Truman made the decision to recognize the establishment of the State of Israel over the objections of Secretary of State George Marshall, who feared it would hurt relations with the Arab states. At a meeting in the White House on November 10, 1945, he told envoys to Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt: “I am sorry, gentlemen, but I have to answer to hundreds of thousands who are anxious for the success of Zionism: I do not have hundreds of thousands of Arabs among my constituents.” Rejecting Arab, British, and U.S. State Department warnings that Jewish immigration to Palestine and a Jewish state would destabilize the Middle East, Truman and Congress continued to support the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people . . . According to George Lenczowski, Truman’s policy on Palestine was influenced by Jewish lobbyists. In his memoirs, Truman wrote that top Jewish leaders in the United States put pressure on him to promote Jewish aspirations in Palestine. At the urging of the British, a special UN committee, UNSCOP recommended the immediate partitioning of Palestine into two states. With Truman’s support, the plan was approved by the General Assembly on November 29, 1947. Secretary of State George Marshall and foreign affairs experts continued to oppose the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. When Truman agreed to meet with Chaim Weizmann, the Secretary of State objected but did not publicly dispute his decision. Secretary of Defense James Forrestal warned about the perils of arousing Arab hostility, which might result in denial of access to petroleum resources in the area, and about “the impact of this question on the security of the United States.” Truman recognized the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, eleven minutes after it declared itself a nation. (Wikipedia, Harry S. Truman)
The historic significance of what Truman had supported was not lost on him or others:
When Israel’s chief rabbi paid the president a visit in early 1949 and told him, “God put you in your mother’s womb so that you could be the instrument to bring about the rebirth of Israel after 2,000 years,” tears rose to the president’s eyes. The Rabbi then opened the Bible that he was carrying with him and read the words of King Cyrus from the Book of Ezra: “The Lord God of Heaven hath given me all the kindness of the earth; and he hath charged me to build Him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” One of Truman’s aides present at the meeting, David Niles, remembered that he thought the chief rabbi was “overdoing things” a bit but when he looked over at the president, tears were running down his cheeks. Another eyewitness recorded: “On hearing these words, Truman rose from his chair and with great emotion, tears glistening in his eyes, he turned to the Chief Rabbi and asked him if his actions for the sake of the Jewish people were indeed to be interpreted thus and the hand of the Almighty was in the matter. The Chief Rabbi reassured him that he had been given the task once fulfilled by the mighty King of Persia, and that he too, like Cyrus, would occupy a place of honor in the annals of the Jewish people. When I visited Truman later in the White House and afterwards at his home in Independence[, Missouri], he would recall this event which had a special place in his heart; he cherished the Chief Rabbi’s statement of the remarkable significance to be attached to his role in the Zionist struggle.” (Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel; Benson, Michael T.; p. 190)
You don’t hear things like that every day, and rarely about American Presidents. How would events have unfolded had Hashgochah Pratis NOT put President Truman into office?
But here are the REAL questions.
Do we NEED the Land of Israel for redemption?
YES.
Did we get it back in 1948?
YES.
Did we receive the approval of the nations?
YES.
Were the circumstances “unusual”?
YES.
Does that make it MESSIANIC?
YES.
THE ARABS DID not waste a moment. One day after the UN accepted Israel as a nation on May 14, 1948, eight LARGE and WELL-FUNDED Arab countries, with Russian backing, went to war against new, tiny, and terribly under-funded Eretz Yisroel. It would be the first of MANY existential wars for Israel over the decades to come.
Israel has survived for 70 years against TREMENDOUS odds, and with limited international support. Survival can be the mother of invention, and the Israelis, in order to survive, have had to be VERY clever in keeping the ongoing Arab threat at bay. To live in a “lion’s den” requires CONSTANT courage and vigilance.
The Yom Kippur War in 1973, however, made it clear that this is not enough, that these things have NEVER been enough. Military strategy only helps so much. Weapons only protect so much. Unquestionably, Israelis have paid for their survival with blood, but it is only because of the MIRACULOUS element that they are still here to talk about it.
Israel may be a non-Torah state, but God is doing miracles for SOMEONE. Not the split-the-sea-type of miracles mind you, but more like the Moshiach-Ben-Yosef-type. Those are the ones that happen through “natural” means. There is a “paper trail,” so-to-speak, but there is also something about what happened that “suggests” something supernatural as well.
Too much COULD have gone wrong, but DIDN’T.
Too many things ALMOST did, but DIDN’T.
Messianic?
It certainly seems like it.
MILITARY SURVIVAL HAS just been only one of the serious issues Israel has had to deal with from its inception. The people have had to be fed, clothed, able to work and make a living, etc. But, Israel is a country lacking in many of the natural resources to make that easy, and there have been few guarantees from others to make up for what is missing.
And, though the land is holy, in the beginning, it was not user-friendly. Thousands of years of exile and a failure on the part of conquering nations to farm the land left it a desert in one way or another. Settling the land meant putting up with life-threatening conditions.
Now, the “desert,” from south to north, has bloomed. Not only has the country become somewhat self-sustaining, Israel has even become a leader in and exporter of the kind of agriculture technology necessary to succeed where other nations have previously failed.
The export of information technology has become a major component of the Israeli economy. Industry leaders have set up offices in Israel to take advantage of Israeli genius to help them in a highly competitive but very lucrative market. The seeds of good ideas do not require fertile ground, just fertile minds:
“Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle” is a 2009 book by Dan Senor and Saul Singer about the economy of Israel. It examines how Israel, a 60-year-old nation with a population of 7.1 million, was able to reach such economic growth that “at the start of 2009, some 63 Israeli companies were listed on the NASDAQ, more than those of any other foreign country.” (Wikipedia)
Do they really mean “miracle”? Does it matter?
THE COLONIZATION OF America was a necessity. Once the New World was discovered, the race began in Europe among the dominant nations of the time to plant their flags there anywhere they could. Unlike Europe, there was new land to be settled in the New World and resources to be plundered. In many respects, the New World represented the continuity of the Old World.
Leaving Europe for Eretz Yisroel in the time of the GR”A was not nearly as appealing. As bad as the conditions were for European Jews at the time, they were worse in Eretz Yisroel. Had it not been for a very strong sense of mission and loyalty to their Rebi’s ideals, the students of the Gaon who made aliyah under his direction either would not have gone, or returned back to Vilna shortly after.
The land has come a long way in 200 years. Today, just about every convenience of life that a person can enjoy in the most civilized of countries can also be found in Israel. What Israel can’t produce on its own it imports and is affordable, at least for some.
Nevertheless, few make aliyah in order to increase their level of materialism. On the contrary, most who have made aliyah over the last few decades have had to leave behind many of the creature comforts to which they had become accustomed in their foreign countries of origin. They were sacrifices they had to KNOWINGLY and WILLINGLY make, but they came ANYWAY.
And they keep on coming. The potential lack of materialistic opportunity does not deter them. The fact that they will be paid a fraction of their Diaspora salary once they live there does not keep them away. And, even more amazing is how the fact that they are surrounded by about a dozen potentially hostile nations does not intimidate them. They make aliyah anyhow. They retire here anyhow.
You would think that people would run the other way. Many do. There is still a large contingent of Jews who reject the idea of aliyah, or even the desire for it. The question is not about them, though. It is about those who do not feel that way, and who move to Israel when there could be so many reasons for them to stay put in the Diaspora.
In fact, they come so fast that the building industry has had to work double-time to keep up with the increase in population. Just about anywhere you go in Israel there are towering cranes in the middle of one construction project or another. It has kept the housing market hot for some time.
It has also forced the government to keep pace as well. New road systems have been added and old ones improved and expanded. There is a large new airport that has already been expanded as well. It looks as if the country is getting ready for something big, HISTORICALLY big.
MESSIANIC big?
UNDENIABLY THE MODERN state IS secular. In the end, the original secularists got their way. Kind of. Torah communities exist all over the country. There are countless yeshivos, seminaries, and chadarim. In its own quiet way, the Torah world has greatly increased its presence in the Holy Land.
Pharaoh said, “Let us deal wisely with them, in case they increase,” but God said, “They most certainly will increase!” The same thing can be said about Torah Jews in Eretz Yisroel. There have been and are concerted efforts by government-backed groups to secularize the religious world, but the impact, as bad as it has been, has still been limited. Overall, the religious community continues to grow.
On one hand, perhaps there is nothing Messianic about it. There are growing Torah communities in the United States, Canada, England, etc. They too receive government subsidies, though it is more unusual to receive them from an anti-Torah government than from a generous gentile one. In each case, it is usually more a function of political deal-making than religious sympathy.
And, perhaps there is nothing Messianic about the way the religious world has found its way into the secular Knesset to secure through the system what it could not accomplish without it. It was only a matter of time before they learned how to use the system to their religious advantage, though it has not always left the religious world in a positive light.
On the other hand, perhaps it is TOTALLY Messianic, and we are just too tuned out to see how. Perhaps we are just too spiritually DESENSITIZED to appreciate the MANY miracles involved over the decades to bring the Torah community to where it is today. We usually are.
Besides, how many Torah Jews must there be in Eretz Yisroel for one of them to be Moshiach? And, once he gets the Divine tap, and begins to fulfill the ancient prophecies about the modern redemption, will it even make a difference? When that happens, people will be running this way and that way to find a yarmulke and a pair of tzitzis.
But, it will certainly make his job “easier” if hundreds of thousands of Israelis are already on the same religious page.
Now THAT’S Messianic.
Pinchas Winston
Thiertysix.org
