The victory that comes from doing G-d’s will

Moshe said, “G-d was also angry at me … [as He] said, ‘You too shall not go there. Yehoshua bin-Nun … is the one who will apportion it to Israel. As for your children of whom you said ‘They’ll be taken captive,’ and your children who did not know good from evil this day – they will come there. To them shall I give it and they shall possess it.” (Devarim 1:37-39)

Without going into too much of the background, in this passage Moshe outlines who will be inheriting the land — as the apportioner and the apportionees — and who will not be involved in the process (Moshe himself).

His focus on the children being the ones to inherit, along with the emphasis on good and evil, prompted the Midrash Tanaim to explain that this is a reference to war.

“They have to know that it is G-d who wages war for you, and that you do not have to fight when you are doing G-d’s will.” The Baal Haturim goes along similar lines when he says exile would have never happened had the people not turned to sin.

Rabbi Yehuda Amital, the founding Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion (“the Gush”), was appropriately critical of people (i.e. certain contemporary rabbis) who would look at any event and ascribe causality to it. “This tragedy happened because…” is an ineffable statement to make. We don’t explain rockets, destruction, wars, and a Holocaust. We are not prophets. We do not know why these things happen.

G-d-fearing people say “This is G-d’s will. It is part of His Master Plan,” and continue to live their lives in the service of G-d, trying to get closer to Him despite the sadness that may pervade at any particular point in time. Rav Amital, whose fifth yarzeit was this past week, was in several labor camps during the Holocaust and lost his entire family.

In response to the question of how he could have faith in G-d after the Holocaust, he explained that if he had lost his faith that wouldn’t bring his family back. It wouldn’t answer any of his questions about G-d’s hiding His face during that era of darkness.