We have become used to thinking of the diaspora as a place of danger; Israel of safety. The fact the biggest murder of Jews in one day since the Holocaust took place in Israel is simply unfathomable. The question is inevitable: Where was God? A strange Midrash on this week’s parashah may hint at an answer.
The Gaza War and the Challenges of Statehood
In the weeks ahead, Israel will be facing one of the hardest tests a nation ever has to face, and it isn’t what we might think. The test is not to stay strong under the threat of rockets fired at our population centers, nor of repelling vicious incursions from across our borders, nor even of standing against the hatred of the nations when we fight back. The war now facing the State of Israel poses a greater challenge, and that is to hold on to the high moral standards that have sustained us since Israel’s founding. We must ensure that we do not become the very thing that we are fighting against.