The War for Hearts and Minds

12 Adar Alef 5774

Before the final war for possession of the Land of Israel can take place, the minds and hearts of the Jews must first be won over.  And what is the purpose of The Jewish Idea, but to win the war for the hearts and minds of the Jews?

If you think about it. This was the whole purpose of the year-long display of the Almighty's power via the plagues on Egypt. If all He had wanted was Egypt's destruction, G-d could have overturned Egypt the same way He did Sodom and Amorah. No, it was to win over the hearts and minds of Jews in preparation for the redemption to come.  And that's why four-fifths of the Jews remained behind.  Their hearts and minds were too connected to Egypt so they were destroyed with it.

But even when our Deliverer, Moshe Rabeinu, came and led us out to freedom on the way to conquering the Holy Land of Israel, were we not also required to wage a physical war as well. Don't think that once Mashiach arrives, that will be the end of the story.  That's what the xians and muslims believe.  We, Jews, know that the first redemption from Egypt is a pattern for all future redemptions including the final redemption.

When we left Egypt, we fought, and when we entered the Land of Israel, we fought.  When we were in Persia, we fought and what did Queen Esther desire for her people, but another day to fight and kill our enemies! When we rebuilt the Second Temple, we fought, and we fought the Greeks in the time of the Chashmonayim and the Romans in the time of Bar Kochva and on throughout our history, we were the fiercest, bravest warriors the planet has ever seen.

Zev Golan, who literally wrote the book on Avraham Stern and his "gang" of revolutionary Zionists, said in a talk he gave a few months ago to a Jewish group in Philadelphia (See Pt 1, Pt 2, Pt 3):  "They weren't of a mindset...." He was referring to the public that Stern and his cohorts sought to influence and inspire to rise up and help them defeat the enemy. "They weren't of a mindset...."  Such sad and tragic words.

If so in their day, how much more so in ours!  Despite the fact that mass communication and information is so readily available, what are people doing with that opportunity, but squandering it on amusements and games and time-wasting distractions which will ensure, by devious design, that, even today, people will not "be of a mindset" to rise up and throw off the bonds of slavery which have been surreptitiously slipped over them and now only need to be tightened inexorably. This is what it means to be "asleep" with your eyes wide open. The eyes stare vacantly into the computer and the television and the iphone like they also do in death.  To be "asleep" in life is to be acting out some kind of living death - disconnected from the Life Source itself. 

HKB"H famously admonished us: "See, I've set before you the blessing and the curse; life and death - choose life!"  Join in the battle for hearts and minds.  This is the building of your faith; the preparation for the march into the reality of redemption.

To be continued...

(See also from today: "Who Was Yair?" and "Revolutionary Zionism")