The Rebbe's view on the wholeness of the Land

00:00 Since we are living through a particular time connected with Eretz Yisroel, we are all waiting, every moment, for the words written in the Torah to be fulfilled: “I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down with none to frighten you.” May the Jewish people, in Eretz Yisroel and throughout the world, be able to live in calm, peace, and rest. “And I will lead you upright.” With Hashem’s help, this will be fulfilled immediately. But I think this is a fitting time for all of us to learn a little about, and understand, the outlook the Rebbe taught us regarding the situation: how a Jew should look at it, understand something of what is going on, and understand what is called the Torah’s perspective—a true opinion, a clear outlook. We were privileged that the Rebbe spoke about this so much and gave us such clarity on the matter. But, because of our many sins, it is very painful to see today, more than ever, how every word the Rebbe said forty, fifty, or more years ago is absolutely true in practice. Meanwhile, people in the material world learned the hard way. Today, everyone agrees that what the Rebbe said is what needs to be done; it still has to be put into practice. Of course, as the years pass, it becomes more complicated and more difficult. But we will leave that to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, who is truly in charge. He guides the world with individual Divine providence, and especially Eretz Yisroel and the Jewish people. So surely, “The Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” Even after all the mistakes that have been made, Hakadosh Boruch Hu will have mercy on the Jewish people, and with Hashem’s help they will be able to conquer, prevail, and finish the job of completely eliminating all the enemies and opponents, all those who hate the Jewish people. May it be just as the verse says in Bilaam’s prophecy. After he describes all the bad things that will happen in the time leading up to Moshiach: “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star shall come forth from Yaakov, and a scepter shall arise”

03:07 “from Israel.” May we merit the revelation of Moshiach, who will bring the true victory, “and crush all the children of Sheis,” through to his final words: “And Israel acts with valor.” May we merit to see it immediately. Especially when bochurim go out on mivtzoim, people sometimes ask questions, and we need to have answers—to know what the Torah’s way is, what the Rebbe’s way is, how we look at the whole situation, and how a Jew should live. So first I want to divide this into two parts. There are two aspects to the situation in Eretz Yisroel. One concerns Eretz Yisroel as Eretz Yisroel, as a place that belongs to the Jewish people, and our connection to it. That is one matter. The other is the issue of pikuach nefesh, saving lives. These are two things that we sometimes mix together because we do not know enough about them. The Rebbe always spoke about both, but they are two distinct points, two separate questions that come up when we discuss this. What is it that we, the Jewish people, need to stand firm about regarding Eretz Yisroel? We all know that the Rebbe’s position was very, very clear. I say “was,” though of course it is also a position in the present, and the Rebbe expressed it more and more clearly and more and more forcefully each time. The Rebbe’s position is that Eretz Yisroel must be held onto completely and with full resolve. There must be a strong, steadfast stand against giving back any ground—not even a handbreadth, in the Rebbe’s words. Not even a centimeter, not even a millimeter. Eretz Yisroel is entirely ours, and there is no question of giving any of it away. But what is the basis for this? It rests on two principles, which are two different things. One concerns Eretz Yisroel itself. Hakadosh

05:32 Boruch Hu gave Eretz Yisroel to the Jewish people. On this, we all know the first Rashi in Parshas Bereishis, which the Rebbe would repeat each time with tremendous passion. The first Rashi on the first parsha, on the first verse, on the Torah’s opening words, “In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth,” says: “Rabbi Yitzchak said: The Torah need only have begun with ‘This month shall be for you,’ the first mitzvah the Jewish people were commanded. Why, then, did it begin with Bereishis? Because ‘He declared the power of His works to His people, to give them the inheritance of the nations.’ For if the nations of the world say to the Jewish people, ‘You are thieves, robbers; you conquered the land of the seven nations,’ we say to them: ‘The whole earth belongs to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He created it and gave it to whomever He saw fit. By His will He gave it to them, and by His will He took it from them and gave it to us.’” These are Rashi’s holy words, and they say it all. A Jew needs to have the right answer, the right outlook, the clear knowledge that we received Eretz Yisroel from Hakadosh Boruch Hu as an everlasting covenant. He was the one who allowed the nations of the world, the seven nations, to be there in those early years, until the year 2488 from creation, when the Jewish people entered Eretz Yisroel. Then the time came, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu said: Now it belongs to the Jewish people. So our presence in Eretz Yisroel rests on the fact that Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself gave it to us. Of course, there are many sichos of the Rebbe and many detailed discussions about this that I will not go into. But this is a fundamental principle concerning Eretz Yisroel. Continuing from that, we have this week’s parsha, Parshas Lech Lecha. It tells us how the whole matter began. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to Avraham Avinu, the first Jew—

07:40 Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to Avraham Avinu, at age seventy-five, in the year 2023 from creation—yes, that was the year Avraham Avinu traveled to Eretz Yisroel. “Lech lecha.” [unclear] That was in the year 2023. [unclear] Avraham Avinu was seventy-five years old, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells him: Now the time has come for you to go to Eretz Yisroel. Avraham Avinu arrives in Eretz Yisroel, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells him: “To your descendants I will give this land.” At the beginning of the parsha, Avraham Avinu receives a promise from Hakadosh Boruch Hu that He is giving him Eretz Yisroel as a gift. Later in the parsha, a second time, after the trouble with Lot and Avraham Avinu’s separation from him, Hakadosh Boruch Hu again tells Avraham Avinu: “I am giving this land to you and your descendants. Arise, walk through the land, its length and its breadth, for to you I will give it.” What is new now? Hakadosh Boruch Hu is telling Avraham Avinu to make a formal acquisition of Eretz Yisroel. Before, there were only words, a promise. Now it is not merely a promise; now it is an acquisition. He tells him to make an acquisition. In halacha, this is called an acquisition through taking possession. It is mentioned in the Targum, by the commentators, and by the halachic authorities. Avraham Avinu walks through the length and breadth of the land, and in doing so he acquires Eretz Yisroel. There are two views on this. The Rebbe discusses them at length in his sichos. Was this an actual acquisition—did Avraham Avinu acquire Eretz Yisroel for all the Jewish people then and there—or was it only a sign? “The deeds of the fathers are a sign for the children.” He performed an act of acquisition as a sign, but the Jewish people made the actual acquisition of Eretz Yisroel later. There is a sicha of the Rebbe on this in Parshas Toldos, volume 15, sicha 2. Is the dispute about—was this

09:43 Had Avraham Avinu already acquired Eretz Yisroel in practice? In other words, from a halachic standpoint, once Avraham Avinu walked through the land, he had already acquired Eretz Yisroel, and from then on it was ours. That seems to be the plain meaning of the verses, because later, at the Covenant Between the Parts, it says, “To your descendants I have given this land.” At the beginning of the chapter it says “I will give,” in the future tense. At the end of the chapter it says “I have given”—I have already given it. That means the land had already been given. So according to a number of opinions, Midrashim, and halachic authorities, Avraham Avinu’s acquisition of Eretz Yisroel was already a halachically valid acquisition. According to Rashi’s approach, the Rebbe says, it seems that this was not a complete acquisition. The acquisition took place when the Jewish people entered Eretz Yisroel and conquered the land. Along with the sanctity of the land came the acquisition as well. Okay, but in any case, that is the second time, and then there is a third time, as we said, toward the end of the parsha. Toward the end of Parshas Lech Lecha, Avraham Avinu is at the Covenant Between the Parts. The Covenant Between the Parts appears toward the end of the parsha, although according to Rashi it happened before Lech Lecha. Chronologically, historically, it happened when Avraham Avinu was not yet in Eretz Yisroel. That is what Rashi says: he was seventy years old. In other words, it was five years earlier, in the year two thousand—2018 from Creation. That was when the Covenant Between the Parts took place, but in the Torah it appears later, toward the end of the parsha. Be that as it may, what does it say there? At the Covenant Between the Parts, Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells Avraham Avinu, “To your descendants I have given this land,” and promises it to him. And it is specifically written in the past tense. This is where the whole discussion begins about the land having already been given. And He gives him not only the lands of seven nations, but of ten nations, from the river of Egypt to

11:38 the Euphrates River. That includes the Keini, Kenizi, and Kadmoni—the lands of Ammon, Moav, and Edom, corresponding today to territories in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. These are various parts of Eretz Yisroel that we have not yet received. And Hakadosh Boruch Hu promises Avraham Avinu that He has given those too, the lands of the Keini, Kenizi, and Kadmoni. When Moshiach Tzidkeinu comes, “Hashem your G-d will expand your borders.” So this is the basis for Eretz Yisroel belonging to the Jewish people. And on that basis, there is the point the Rebbe repeated so many times, dozens and hundreds of times at farbrengens: when a Jew speaks with a non-Jew, he needs to say what is written in the Torah. The Rebbe spoke about this so many times. Non-Jews too—in fact, with non-Jews it is especially straightforward. You tell a non-Jew, “This is what it says in the Bible, this is what it says in the Torah,” and for him too, the Torah is the most important book. A non-Jew believes in the Torah. So you tell him that this is what it says in the Bible, that these verses are explicit in our Torah, and you do not need to fight with him. The Rebbe very much wanted this; throughout the years he urged it and asked for it. There were even prime ministers, ministers, and other important people who came. For example, even the current prime minister, when he visited the Rebbe, was not yet prime minister. I am talking about more than forty years ago, yes? I remember when he was with the Rebbe. The Rebbe spoke with him for a long time. I was at the Rebbe’s then too. It was in ’41 or ’42, as I recall. Benjamin Netanyahu was with the Rebbe at a gathering with Chabad chassidim, and in the middle of the gathering the Rebbe stayed and spoke with him for a long time. There was confusion; it was quiet. People did not know what to do. They were thinking, in the middle of the gathering, [unclear].

13:45 People could not move, and the Rebbe was standing there talking to him. The Rebbe spoke with him for about forty-five minutes. One of the things the Rebbe discussed was this: he was then Israel’s representative at the United Nations, the UN, and the Rebbe urged him to stand firm. What he needed to say was the first Rashi in Chumash: if he said it firmly, all the nations of the world would yield completely. In practice, we know that people were afraid; they did not want to say it. But in any case, that is the truth, and that is the point that needs to be clear. That is one point, the matter of Eretz Yisroel. But there is another point that the Rebbe spoke about a great deal at farbrengens, and it is not actually connected to Eretz Yisroel at all. If it had been another country, another place, the same thing would have applied: the matter of saving lives. We know that saving a life overrides the entire Torah. We see that although the Torah upholds every detail, all 613 mitzvos and so on, the moment a life is at stake, saving that life overrides Shabbos and overrides Yom Kippur. Saving a life is one of the most central matters in the Torah, if not the most central. In Parshas Acharei, the Torah says, “and live by them”—“You shall keep the mitzvos of Hashem,” and so on, “and live by them.” The plain meaning of “and live by them,” as the Gemara says in Sanhedrin and in Yoma, is “live by them, and not die by them.” The Torah demands and wants us to protect life. And where a life is at stake, we see that we make all kinds of leniencies—to the point that saving a life overrides the entire Torah. So when a life is at stake, one must even be ready to risk one’s own life. When it comes to saving a Jew, protecting a Jew’s life—even one Jew,

15:48 and even when there is only a possibility that a life is at stake. Yes, as halachah says, even when there is the remotest possibility that a life is at stake, we set aside the entire Torah for that. So that is a second, central matter discussed in the Rebbe’s sichos, and we will come to Eretz Yisroel as well. In other words, the Rebbe said this. There were arguments, all kinds of back-and-forth and elaborate reasoning, claiming that some parts are not Eretz Yisroel. In those years I am talking about, the 5730s and early 5740s, there was a whole uproar over an area called the Sinai Peninsula. It was a large territory captured from Egypt, the Sinai Peninsula, which according to halachah is not actually part of Eretz Yisroel. Fine. So the question was: if it is not part of Eretz Yisroel, what is the problem with returning it for the sake of peace, to make peace? The Rebbe gave extremely forceful sichos about this. Particularly in 5738 and 5739. There is even a sicha from Parshas Lech Lecha 5738. Anyone who wants to see one of the awe-inspiring, extraordinary things we saw with the Rebbe—this is something truly hard to fathom, and it is worth knowing about. In 5738, everyone knows that in Tishrei the Rebbe was in a genuinely life-threatening condition. On Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah 5738, the Rebbe suffered, rachmana litzlan, a heart attack. It was truly a life-threatening situation. The doctors asked the Rebbe not to hold farbrengens, not to speak, not to do those things, because it was simply that serious. The Rebbe was, quite literally, in a situation where his life was at stake. Yet just a few days later, we saw that the Rebbe was undeterred. On the night after Simchas Torah, the Rebbe was already speaking; he delivered a maamar and a sicha. On the night after Shabbos Bereishis, he spoke even more. The doctors gave

17:41 They gave him permission to speak for five minutes, and he spoke for half an hour. They gave him permission for half an hour, and he spoke for five hours. With the Rebbe, you could truly see his self-sacrifice for the Jewish people. One of the things you could actually see—the doctors were beside themselves and could not believe it—was on Motzaei Shabbos Parshas Lech Lecha. That was two, two and a half weeks after Simchas Torah, after the Rebbe had gone through a life-threatening episode, G-d forbid. The Rebbe was still in a life-threatening condition, with doctors constantly at his side, and could not leave the house. That was how things were throughout those days. And in those very days, the Rebbe delivered a sicha. You can hear the Rebbe speaking; there’s a recording of Motzaei Shabbos Parshas Lech Lecha. The Rebbe speaks with such pain, with such heartfelt feeling, with such... You cannot believe that the Rebbe is in a condition where he needs to protect his physical health, needs peace of mind and physical rest. He must not raise his voice; they barely allowed him to speak. Yet the Rebbe speaks for a full hour about the situation in Eretz Yisroel, about the danger to life, and about what needs to be done, and so on. That was a sicha from that period. One of the points the Rebbe spoke about then was this: even without getting into the question of Eretz Yisroel, there is the matter of danger to life. Saving lives comes first. Jews are in actual danger every moment, surrounded by Arabs. Even if this were not in Eretz Yisroel, the same would apply anywhere. One of the things the Rebbe mentioned—and mentioned many times—was the Shulchan Aruch. This was one of the things you saw with the Rebbe: halachah tells us how a Jew must conduct himself. How does a Jew know what is true? Every politician will tell you a story. Everyone will sell you their version of the truth. A Jew looks in the Shulchan Aruch and conducts his life according to it.

19:40 For the Rebbe, it was Orach Chayim, siman 329, in the Shulchan Aruch. The Rebbe returned to that siman again and again and again. Every single person needs to know it. There is an explicit halachah in Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim, siman 329. It appears earlier in the Rambam and in the Gemara as well, but as practical halachah it is in Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim, siman 329. What does the Shulchan Aruch say? If Jews live somewhere—not necessarily in Eretz Yisroel, but anywhere at all, a village, a town, a city, anywhere in the world—and non-Jews arrive and start causing trouble, making provocations and interfering: even if they have come only over matters of straw and hay, as the Shulchan Aruch puts it. They have not come to wage war or to kill. They have come because they want the Jews living in some town—whether in Australia, Russia, Argentina, wherever—to give them things, to give them straw and hay, and they want to quarrel over it. The halachah says that even in the middle of Shabbos, it is not only permitted but necessary to set aside the laws of Shabbos, stand firm, go out to fight, and guard the border. All the laws of Shabbos are set aside at that moment. In other words, this is a clear halachah. Even when the danger to life is only a remote possibility, the Gemara and the halachah give a clear ruling in the Shulchan Aruch: you must stand firm at the border and not let them in under any circumstances. Then there is also the law concerning a sword passing through in peace, not only a sword of war: “A sword shall not pass through your land”—not even a sword passing through in peace.

21:47 But let’s return to our point. Here is a very strong point that the Rebbe repeated constantly, and it concerns those we are dealing with, the Arabs around Eretz Yisroel. The reality is very clear. They are not coming over straw and hay; they are not coming to do business with us. They are not coming simply to ask us for territory. It is clear: the Arabs living around Eretz Yisroel, the nations around us, want to destroy the Jewish people. This is not imagination or a dream. They say it themselves, constantly and emphatically. They say it plainly. Whenever people tried various approaches, thinking that if they made peace, if they gave them something, returned something to them... From the very first day, everyone knew. Any normal person knew that they had no interest in peace at all. They were not interested in receiving a piece of Eretz Yisroel. It is all falsehood. But various statesmen and politicians think that if we do a little business with them, give them this, flatter them, speak nicely to them about peace, do this and that, and make concessions in exchange for peace, everything will be fine. We’ll give it back to them. Reality has shown otherwise from the first day. By “the first day,” I mean since the territories were captured in 5727, 1967, in the Six-Day War. Then came the Yom Kippur War and the periods afterward. Every time people spoke of returning territories in exchange for peace, not only did it fail to bring even a drop of peace; on the contrary, it led to more, G-d forbid, outright killings. Jews were killed in Eretz Yisroel time and again. You saw it with your own eyes. Today we

23:57 see it with our own eyes, G-d forbid. We reached this point several years ago. I imagine many of us still remember that infamous Tisha B’Av, when they handed it back, forcibly removing Jews from the area near Gaza, claiming that things would be better as a result. That was the decision. It was one of the most bitter things; when I remember it, it makes me want to cry. That Tisha B’Av, when Jews forcibly removed Jews from their homes. All of Gush Katif, that entire area that Jews had built and invested millions in—they removed them by force, claiming that if we gave it back, things would be good. And today, G-d forbid, the blood that has been spilled... It is hard, hard to speak about. So what is the point? The point is that lives are at stake. When lives are at stake, there is nothing else to take into account. There is nothing to discuss. Standing firm is the only way. A non-Jew understands one language—especially an Arab, especially a terrorist. He does not understand another language. It is as though you are speaking... Do you think that if you speak to him in the language of peace, speak nicely, and give him something...? No, no, no. There is nothing to discuss. They are two languages that have nothing to do with each other. For the non-Jew, for the Arab, for the terrorist, there is one goal and one goal only. He hates the Jew. He is fighting against the very existence of the Jewish people. He wants to destroy the Jewish people completely. We know what our Sages say: “It is a halachah that Esav hates Yaakov.” We will soon learn this in Parshas Vayishlach. “It is a halachah that Esav hates Yaakov,” but even within that there are different degrees. There are different kinds of people; there are also the righteous among the nations, and so on, as is well known.

26:07 But here, when we’re talking about the peoples living around Eretz Yisroel, that’s their message. That’s how they educate their children, and to them it’s a source of pride, something great—it’s what it’s all about. Their whole aim is to kill. They have no other aim. So the only way is for Jews to stand firm, with the greatest possible firmness. A firmness that means—there are no concessions here, no mercy. And there’s another teaching of our Sages that the Rebbe repeated many times: “One who has mercy on the cruel will ultimately be cruel to the merciful.” It’s frightening. How did our Sages sum up in one sentence the whole history of what has happened, what has been happening in Eretz Yisroel in recent years? The principle is this: If you want to be merciful—our people are merciful; it’s our nature. The signs of the Jewish people are that they are merciful, do acts of kindness, and are modest. So we want to be merciful. To whom? To someone who is cruel? You want to bring him into your home, make him feel good, and be his friend. You have mercy on the cruel? Poor thing, he’s suffering. The poor children. The poor families. That’s having mercy on them. And we see it now, too. We see that this mercy toward cruel people ends, rachmana litzlan, in the opposite: ultimately, there is cruelty toward the merciful. They enter communities, villages, and towns where merciful Jews live, and treat them cruelly and kill them in a brutal way, as we’re seeing now. So these are two points we need to remember, understand, and know. We need to know what the point is, simply what our approach needs to be. Good. Now, the situation we’re in after Simchas Torah this year, after what happened in 5784, rachmana litzlan—may such trouble never happen again—after that terrible, horrific event, the great massacre, the pogrom that took place, it’s clear that now the main point

28:36 we need to emphasize is pikuach nefesh, the saving of lives. The Jewish people are in mortal danger, literally. If anyone had any doubt, we can now see it with our own eyes. The Rebbe cried out about this fifty years ago. It’s simply terrifying. If you look at the additions to Likkutei Sichos, volume 26, there are several letters from the Rebbe there. From 5730—no, not 5730. One is from 5730, one from 5729. There are several letters from the Rebbe there on this issue. It’s just—you can’t believe the Rebbe wrote these things fifty years ago, what it says there. Really, extremely sharp words. The Rebbe writes to Shazar. The letter from 5729 is one the Rebbe wrote to Zalman Shazar. He was what they call the president, the president of Israel in those years. He was very close to the Rebbe. Everyone knows Shazar was a chossid of the Rebbe. He was the president of the country, but he was very, very connected. He came from a Chabad family, and he had been close to the Rebbe since 5708, 5709, right at the beginning of the State of Israel. Back then, he had already come to America to meet the Frierdiker Rebbe. The Frierdiker Rebbe introduced him to the Rebbe, and he remained very connected to the Rebbe throughout the years and traveled to see him many times, just like a chossid. In any case, he didn’t know about this. He didn’t know exactly that the Rebbe was, so to speak, not aligned with Zionism—that the Rebbe’s approach was not the Zionist approach. The Rebbe, after all, opposed—the Rebbe’s position was that the whole idea of aschalta d’Geulah, that the Zionists’ claim that the renewed conquest of Eretz Yisroel in 1948 was, as it were, the beginning of the Geulah—the Rebbe said that this is

30:33 something one must not say. Not only must one not say it, the Rebbe maintained that it causes a great deal of trouble. Rachmana litzlan, on the contrary: not only is it not the beginning of the Geulah, it is a matter of doubled and redoubled darkness. We can see plainly that since then, the situation of exile has become even worse. But Shazar didn’t know that. He only found out many years later. In 5729, he apparently wrote the Rebbe a letter because he couldn’t understand how the Rebbe could think so differently from the way he thought. He was a little upset. And the Rebbe wrote him a very interesting letter. It’s there, if you’d like to see it, either in Igros Kodesh from 5729 or in the additions to Likkutei Sichos, volume 26. And the Rebbe explains it to him beautifully. The Rebbe tells him: I didn’t tell you my position because I have an approach that I received. Incidentally, this is an aside, but it’s very interesting. The Rebbe tells him: I received guidance, an approach, a perspective, from my father-in-law, the Frierdiker Rebbe: when you meet someone, don’t look for the differences between you. Look for what brings you close to each other. When you meet someone, you don’t need to tell him how your views oppose his. Some people, as soon as they meet someone, like to get into arguments. On the contrary, look for the common ground. In what way are we friends? What do we think alike about? So the Rebbe had known Shazar for twenty years, since 5709, and hadn’t said a word to him. Why do I need to tell you that I don’t agree with—there are many other good things on which we can be friends. And indeed, the Rebbe and Shazar accomplished very great things for Eretz Yisroel and so on. But now you’ve heard something about this, so I’ll explain it

32:13 to you. And then the Rebbe explains the point to him. The Rebbe explains very forcefully that allowing politicians to control and make the decisions about how to safeguard the Jewish people and Eretz Yisroel is the greatest disaster for Eretz Yisroel. Having a politician decide how to lead Eretz Yisroel is the very opposite of ensuring its security. The security of Eretz Yisroel needs to be entirely in the hands of military people, people with no connection whatsoever to political decisions. Why? Because politics is built on flattery, on falsehood, on seeking favor in the eyes of the nations, on living with illusions and getting by. You want America to like you, England to like you, France to like you; you want to be at peace with the whole world. And the moment the world turns up its nose at you a little, you get frightened. You need approval from the UN, approval from all sorts of places, and then everything becomes confused and you’re no longer thinking about what’s good for the Jewish people and Eretz Yisroel. The only way to safeguard the security of Eretz Yisroel by natural means, of course—Hakadosh Boruch Hu protects us, but in terms of natural means—is as it says in the Shulchan Aruch. The Shulchan Aruch says that when Yom Kippur comes and a person’s life may be in danger depending on whether he eats or doesn’t eat, whom do you ask? Do you ask a rabbi? You don’t ask a rabbi. The rabbi isn’t a medical expert. You ask a doctor, and if the doctor says he needs to eat, you follow what the doctor says. Yes, the rabbi is a tzaddik, holy and pure, and he knows the halachah. But in this matter, the rabbi isn’t the one who decides. Here you need a doctor who is an expert in medicine, and he is the one who decides. When it comes to safeguarding Eretz Yisroel, you don’t ask a rabbi, you don’t ask—you don’t ask experts, you don’t ask politicians, military people

34:23 A country. Ask people in the army—people whose whole life revolves around the security of the Land of Israel, who know the situation as it really is. They know the Arabs, they know the terrorists, they know who they’re dealing with, and they know this is the way. There is no other way. The moment we mix in other considerations, our thinking gets muddled and confused, and then we make mistakes. These are simple things, but the Rebbe taught us how to think correctly, purely, normally—how a healthy Jew, or any healthy person, should look at reality in a healthy way, with clear eyes. If we think that way, things will be very clear. We’ll know what needs to be done and how to do it. So, in practical terms, when people ask us—when someone asks you what our approach is, what the way forward is, what we think—first you need to explain: there are two separate issues here. There is the issue of the Land of Israel, and there is the issue of saving lives. I’ll speak with you about saving lives before the Land of Israel, because even if this were not the Land of Israel, lives would still be at stake. That is very clear. A terrorist wants to kill you. He doesn’t want the land; he isn’t interested in territory. We’ve seen this over seventy years, again and again. Lives are at stake. Now we see with Hamas how they operate, what their reality is. They have no heart, no mercy. They want to kill and slaughter, as we thought people did in the Middle Ages, in the dark times five hundred or a thousand years ago. In those times of calamity there were murderers like that, people who killed during the Crusades. We thought those times

36:09 no longer existed. But here they are. There are people thirsty for blood, people raised to be murderers. So when lives are at stake, the way forward is to stand strong and firm: we have to go all the way and put an end to them. That is their method. “If someone comes to kill you, rise early and kill him first”—put an end to them. That means going all the way, without mercy. That is one point we need to establish. After that, we need to speak about the Land of Israel. The Land of Israel is the Holy Land, “a land that the eyes of Hashem your G-d are upon, from the beginning of the year”—the Land of Israel. It isn’t a place you can do business with. It is a land we received from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. These are two points we need to explain, and so on. That is to clarify things, to give us a little clarity about the situation in the Land of Israel. Now there is one more point I want to discuss briefly: what do we need to do? Of course, we don’t run the country, and our perspective is very limited. Politics is not our way; that isn’t our concern. Why are we sitting in another country, in a yeshiva, learning? Why shouldn’t we all become soldiers and go fight? We need to understand something very simple and very clear. What protects every Jew, anywhere in the world? There are two things. There are the natural means, and there is Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Who protects us: “Behold, the Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” How do we protect the Land of Israel and protect a Jew? Hakadosh Boruch Hu wrote it in the Torah; it says in the Gemara. It is the well-known teaching of our Sages about David and Yoav, which the Rebbe repeated many times. There were many wars then. We all know that David and Yoav conducted wars. In those wars, the Gemara says, David sat and learned Torah while Yoav went out to battle. The Gemara says that if David had not learned Torah,

38:13 Yoav could not have won. And if Yoav had not gone out to battle, David could not have learned. There are two groups here, and each needs the other. A bochur who sits and learns Gemara, Tosafos, a maamar of Chassidus, a sicha of the Rebbe—who sits and learns diligently, with dedication, both Nigleh and Chassidus—protects the Land of Israel. That is the power of Torah. And there is that teaching of our Sages in the Gemara in Gittin, page 7, which we learned last year: “Rise early and stay late against them in the study hall, and they will perish on their own.” The Gemara tells of one of the Amoraim who had enemies. He asked another Amora, Rabbi Elazar, what to do about them. He told him: “Rise early and stay late against them in the study hall.” Get up early in the morning, go to sleep late, and learn Torah. Tosafos explains that this refers to Torah study, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu will take care of your situation. That is what a bochur needs to do. Alongside that, there is the need to make efforts through natural means. There need to be soldiers, there need to be defenses, and we need to protect the Land of Israel. We need to know this, and every bochur needs to have simple, clear faith in it. It needs to be firm in his faith, because people from the outside world will come and tell you otherwise. It’s easy to come and say, “You’re sitting there learning, while he’s suffering and fighting—and what are you doing? Sitting there drinking coffee and eating cake?” Fine, so drink your coffee without sugar. Don’t eat the tastiest cake. What I’m saying is that this point needs to be clear to us, in our minds and in our hearts. Reality is not determined solely by natural means—not at all—particularly when it comes to the Land of Israel and the Jewish people. We are a people with faith in Hakadosh Boruch

40:07 Hu, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu told us, “If you walk in My statutes.” When a Jew sits and learns Torah, fulfilling his shlichus by learning during the scheduled study periods, because that is his role, then he brings something about. He makes it possible that “I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down with none to frighten you; and I will remove wild beasts from the land.” That is what is written in the Torah of truth, and it is the truth. So a bochur needs to look at himself and know that he is a soldier. He is a soldier just like the soldier in the Gaza area. He is a soldier because through the Torah he learns, through his learning, his conduct, and his davening, he helps the Jewish people, helps change the situation for the better, helps bring the hostages back and the soldiers home safely, so that we can achieve victory both beyond nature and through natural means. That is what we ask for, and that is what will happen. In other words, each person, in his own place and in his own shlichus, has a role to play so that there will truly be peace in the land and only good for the Jewish people. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu help each and every one of us truly carry out our shlichus with full strength, to devote ourselves to it, knowing that we are now in the final moments of exile. “Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain?” All the turmoil among the nations is preparation for the coming of Moshiach. We ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu that it happen with kindness and mercy, immediately, right now. We have already endured enough of the suffering of exile. Enough years, enough suffering. So the time has come for “Lech Lecha,” as it says in the weekly parsha, and for us to see with our own eyes, today, the fulfillment of “To your descendants I have given this land”—the land of the ten nations. The Rebbe spoke in 5752, in the sicha on this night, about how we also need to learn the concepts in Chassidus concerning the Keini, Kenizi, and Kadmoni—the mochin. Through your sitting and learning Chassidus, Hakadosh

42:18 Boruch Hu makes it possible for us to receive not only the lands of the seven nations, but those of the ten as well. May we merit to see it with our own eyes immediately, right now.