Discipline, faith and devotion

Last week I was privileged to attend the declaration ceremony of the Iyar cohort in the Chashmonaim Brigade.

I stood there filled with pride and satisfaction as I watched my students, graduates of the “B’Tzavta” academy, standing with their comrades in the company, declaring and pledging to defend the People of Israel while scrupulously preserving the Charedi way of life and the Torah character with which they entered military service.

Beside them stood the families: moved parents, brothers, friends and acquaintances. All had come to see up close what history looks like, what proud Charedi combat soldiers look like. Along with the declaration and the rifle, these dear soldiers held a kuntres, a Torah booklet, written by the brigade’s own combat soldiers. And where speeches are usually thought sufficient, the Chashmonaim Brigade carried on its splendid tradition: a siyum on a tractate as an integral part of the ceremony.

This Shabbat we will read Parashat Chukat: “This is the statute of the Torah.”

The passage of the Red Heifer opens with a mitzvah that human reason struggles to grasp. Our Sages teach that there are things a person does without fully understanding them, simply because that is the will of Hashem. So too, when a soldier enters service, and especially a combat unit, he understands that there will be things asked of him whose full reason he will not grasp in the early stages. His commanders challenge him, and at the start of basic training the question comes up more than once: why are we doing this? What is the use of it? But with time the soldier understands that to become a professional combat soldier, ready for the battlefield, he must acquire self-discipline, complete trust in his commanders and the ability to carry out the mission even when he cannot see the whole picture.

So it is in the life of the spirit. The Holy One, blessed be He, commands us to fulfill certain mitzvot even when we do not understand their depth. Through study, inquiry and faith we come to understand that the true foundation is accepting the yoke of Heaven and doing His will with love.

Rise and succeed, combat soldiers of the Chashmonaim Brigade! Continue to sanctify the Name of Heaven through your deeds, your service and the personal example you set for us all.

Shabbat Shalom u’Mevorach!