Rising in Unity

It’s time to wake up, in fact we all have been hitting the snooze button for way too long.  We have to realize that we are a nation, chosen by G-d to live our lives to maximum while following his ordinances. We are surrounded by good, we have our health, we have money, we aren’t in the concentration camps. Life is good for us. But we need to soak up these moments, and help others fast in growing their own individual personal connection to Hashem.
 
As a Ba’al Teshuva, who served in an IDF combat unit, I can tell you that personal prayer saved me physically, emotionally, and helped me persevere in being Torah observant. From Lebanon to Gaza the books of Rav Shalom Arush and CD’s from Rav Lazer Brody carried me through long and grueling experiences of little comfort, guard duty, sleepless nights hiking, and worrying about war.
 
Let’s face it, life is full of challenges, the bills, the time appointments, the deals to make, the drug addictions and more bills. But what are we doing with all of these problems? Most of us are just drinking another coffee, or having another cigarette, or eating another piece of cake.  This has to stop, we are Hashem’s anointed.  We are here to correct.
 

Above image: The Author (right) with Rabbi Lazer Brody on a Gaza border outpost, receiving a blessing before going out on night patrol; image courtesy of Emuna Outreach

 
The approach is simple. Imagine you are there in the ghetto. Cold, winter, no food, and you and your whole family are wearing the yellow Star of David badge.  Do you feel the pain of what they felt? No freedom, nothing. Do you feel the anger, how no one in this world cared about us? How the most inhumane crimes were committed against our people, our babies? The truth is that we all do feel this pain, but what do we do about it?
 
Life is so short, with so many opportunities to do good, and so many tests trying to get us down. I want you to imagine that you are that person with the yellow badge, but now free. That’s right, you are now carrying the torch, for the next G-d willing 120 years. We have to take that anger and resentment at the world and throw it into positivity. 
 
Our Judaism is lacking the brotherhood which will ultimately lead to the rectification of the world.  But for the time being, the Jewish World is too much about what kind of kippa that guy has, if he wears his tzitzit out or not and how long his beard is. We need to wake up friends, and return to the lesson from the trains.  We are ONE, whether our wives are wearing a wig, a scarf or a beret. We need to realize that it’s time to love one another, more and more because the world is still flamboyantly against us.
 
What is the victory over the tyrants who killed our brothers? The answer is living a life of being proud of your Judaism, not proud of your cream cheese and lox, but of the fact that for thousands of years, we have been fired up about connecting to Hashem, and sharing this love with our children, in order to pass it on and bring more light to this world.
 
In the army its called “Hashkama” or simply, “WAKE UP TIME” where after you have slept only 4 hours, in the middle of the night the lights in the bunk flash on.  We need to do that with our lives, feel the yellow badge on your shirt, the world is still against us, but we can fight.  Our goal is to be proud of who we are, and sanctify our lives in honor of all those who gave it to the chimneys. 
 
What are we afraid of that’s stopping us? Is it what other people may think if you wear a kippa, or put on tefillin, or dress modestly? We are in a battle, trying to please the world and what others think of us, and doing what can bring more of Hashem’s light.  Our goal is to be the complete opposite of the evil, but that takes us being strong.  Not just strong, but resolute.  It’s our job to help one another strengthen each other in Emuna.
 
Once I heard Rav Noach Weinberg of blessed memory explain the difference between pleasure and pain. He said that when asked, people always say that pleasure is the opposite of pain.  But that it is not true. The opposite of pain is comfort. The opposite of pain is our indulgences, the wasted time, the sleeping in, the beer etc. True pleasure takes pain, sacrifice and a willingness to change through hard work and determination.