Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went to meet the soldiers of the Nahal Haredi the other day. The meeting was very amamee, or informal and personal, as Netanyahu sat with the soldiers and shmoozed, hearing many stories of their experiences with both the army and the society the soldiers came from.After listening to the stories and how many of the soldiers were first met with cold shoulders when they would go back home, and then after a few months people warmed up and accepted them "as is", Netanyahu spoke to the group. He related an interesting story about his grandfather.
Netanyahu said his grandfather in Europe was an exceptional yeshiva student. One day, he was at the train station with his brothers, standing in the cold and snow, and he was beaten by a gang of hooligans who also called him derogatory names such as "zhid". He was laying there in the snow not knowing if he would survive. He said to himself "woe to the shame, the children of the Maccabees, the descendants of King David, this is how we wallow in the mud without the ability to protect ourselves! If I will survive this and live, I will take my family and go to Eretz Yisrael and there we will establish a state and an army."
Netanyahu continued and said that this man, his grandfather, was an exceptional yeshiva student. Yet he did not see any conflict between the ideas. Faith is absolutely necessary, but "the sword" is also absolutely necessary. How will we protect Am Yisrael? How will we protect the Toras Yisrael? With the power of faith definitely, but we also have to hold the sword, the sword of David.
(source: Ladaat)
VERY NICE
ReplyDeletenow he brings shame to his grandfather not even wearing a kipa on his head. he really has things mixed up
ReplyDeleteA grandfather (or is it great-grandfather?) of his was R. Nosson Millikowsky.
ReplyDeleteIs that who he meant? Or someone else?
When our youngest son asked our permission to join as a lone soldier, my wife and I had trepidations. We want to the Rav of the community, a Godol with a long white beard. After listening tour story and the paths our son had been taking the last few years, the Rav gave his blessing. In the IDF, your son will be surrounded by Jews doing good deeds, he can keep kosher if he chooses, and it is a Jewish environment in a Jewish land. With a sigh the Rav concluded, how wonderful it must make him feel to know he will be part of the first Jewish army in 3,000 years. And he wondered if we would have suffered as a people during those years if we had a Jewish army to protect us?
ReplyDeleteRafi, where is the pic from? It doesn't look like Nachal Charedi soldiers to me.
ReplyDeleteI just took a picture off google images. they look like nahal haredi to me, and that is Rabbi Yoel Schwartz who is the netzach yehudah rabbi...
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