The Carmel Fires Demand More Love

I find this news piece interesting, and different than some other recent pieces on the same issue.

The piece is quoting Rav Shmuel Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of Tzfat (safed) regarding the recent fires that ravaged and destroyed in the range of 50,000 dunams in the Carmel Forests near Haifa.

Recently many different rabbis spoke out saying what needs to be "fixed" in light of the recent tragedy. It basically turned into a blame game, with many different sectors being blames, whether it was those who do not keep shabbos, or those who are not honest, or others (I dont remember them all right now but I remember seeing at least 7 different types of people, their actions really, being blamed for the fires).

While it might not have been so productive to start laying blame so close (even during for many of the rabbis) to the actual tragedy, but the rabbis job description includes exhorting his people, those by whom he holds influence, to do better, to improve their ways, etc. So it bothered me less that they were doing so, even if I thought the timing was not great, than the tone they were using.

Rabbi Eliyahu's response to the fires is different. While their tone was all negative - The fires are due to chillul shabbos - as if people are going to start keeping shabbos because of that statement, the fires are due to renting houses to non-Jews, etc. are all negatively based. Maybe they feel it needs to be said, ok. But Rabbi Eliyahu turned the tables.

Rabbi Eliyahu did not blame others, saying they need to improve, it is their fault, they caused the fire , they are bad people. He said we need to improve. It is our fault. We don't love Hashem enough. If we would love Hashem more, if we would perform the mitzvos with more love, as it says in the kiryat shema, then we will receive the rains, as it promises in kriyat shema. Rabbi Eliyahu compared it to the fire of Eliyahu HaNavi on the Carmel, where there was a large drought, and then a major fire, and then the rains came.

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu’s answer:


“Every Jew who recites the Kriat Shma [Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 11:13-21, and Numbers 15:37-41] every day knows that the Land of Israel, unlike other countries, lives according to its rainfall. This is simply G-d’s way of speaking to us; this is His language.


"If we experience a drought for two months, G-d is saying something, as we read in Kriat Shma: “If you hearken to My commandments… and love G-d… I will give you rainfall… But if you stray… I will be angered… and there will not be rain…” But if we perhaps don’t get the hint, then we get the great fire in the Carmel, which is very reminiscent of Elijah the Prophet who challenged the idol-worshipers in the same area; there, too, there was a drought, followed by a large fire and then – rains of blessing.


“There, the story was quite clear, as Elijah told them straight out that they tried to dance at two weddings; they straddled the fence without deciding whether they truly believed in the false god Baal, or in G-d, the Creator of the world. In their private lives they conducted themselves according to Baal and Asherah, adopting foreign modes of behavior imported by Queen Jezebel and King Ahab, but at the same time they still believed in G-d.


"This is very reminiscent of the Chanukah story, in which many of the Hellenized Jews retained their belief in G-d at the critical moments; they acted like Greeks on the outside because it was pleasant and ‘everyone is doing it,’ but inside they realized that it was nonsense – and when Mattathias called out, “Whoever is for G-d, come to me!”, many of them came.


“My feeling is that as a nation, we too must say that we are not straddling two fences, but that we truly feel our belief in G-d...


"I’m talking to the religious public too; when we read Kriat Shma, we must internalize what it says – that the key is not just fulfilling the commandments, but to do them with love of G-d, as is written: With all your hearts and all your souls. When we pray, or light Chanukah candles, or keep the Sabbath, we can either do it just by rote, or with love. We must imbue our children with love, and then the rains will come – and if not, not.


“To say that ‘the lack of rain does not speak to me,’ as I have heard some people saying, means that they are not fulfilling properly the commandment of reciting Kriat Shma, which must be done with forethought…”