מתי מלחמה היא מצווה?

00:00 All right, this is Igress, and we are in the year תשע"ד, exactly fifty years ago. And as mentioned previously, we are, uh, we are unfortunately somewhat reliving the letters of exactly fifty years ago. We did this, uh, in תשע"ג, and it was kind of great to relive those fifty years. It's been less great now. But exactly fifty years ago, there was a Yom Kippur War, and fifty years later, we are now reading letters that correspond to a current war that started on Simchas Torah. So the, uh, letter that we're looking at today is letter יטטכע"ט. This is one of the earlier letters from תשע"ד. It's in Tishrei, and it's unclear from the letter whether the war was still going on at the time, but we can assume that it was from some of the context in the letter. Either that or it had very recently ended. It was the Yom Kippur War. So this was written in Tishrei תשע"ד, and the Rebbe starts off by promoting Tzedakah, but the part we're going to focus on is something the Rebbe says near the bottom of the letter, so keep that in mind as we go through the entire letter. The Rebbe writes, By the way, he opens with Shalom. See? Peace. I'm responding to your letter. And to explain, I'm responding to your letter by telling you that it's explained in many places that there's an incredible advantage of Tzedakah, of the mitzvah of Tzedakah. And it's also understood that when God does things, it's exactly

01:19 the way that we act is the way that God acts. Except that God acts even more so when it comes to mitzvahs. So if we do a good thing, God does many, many more good things because of our good thing. When you give Tzedakah to somebody who's poor, even though you don't actually need to give him anything, you don't owe the guy. This gives incredible berakhahs from Hashem to the giver of the Tzedakah in everything that he might need. And increases upon him these berakhahs. And every one of us need berakhahs all the time. This is a generic opening, but it's also a very important opening. Every time somebody asks for Tzedakah, this is an idea that's in the back of my head, is that I don't actually owe them anything, but I'm gonna give them something that I don't owe them, and I hope that God, in return, is going to give me things that I don't deserve, uh, hopefully significantly more. So the Rebbe says that is the way the charity works. When we give to people who don't deserve, we get things we don't deserve. And the truth is, we could all use that. But when these recent times, but now there are people who find themselves in the-- in battle, they find themselves at war. They're unable to give Tzedakah. They're busy. They're on the front. They can't be giving Tzedakah practically. Because there are things that are depending on their lives, that they, uh, there, there are all sorts of

02:29 conditions that need to be met. They're busy. They're busy fighting a war. They can't be giving Tzedakah right now. So, therefore I've asked somebody who's my, my dear friend, the Rebbe doesn't say who, who is bringing you this letter. That they should bring with them, they should deliver this letter to you, and he should also bring a coin and give you a coin as a gift. So that if you want then you can use what I sent and also use your own money to fulfill mitzvah Tzedakah. So the Rebbe's sending Tzedakah, the, it seems to Eretz Israel, telling them, "Use this and give this in my name. You're my shlukh, and to give Tzedakah for me, and also you should give Tzedakah from your own as a way of, uh, doing so for the soldiers who are unable to give Tzedakah right now." This is a very novel way of looking at the charity that's happening right now in America. Uh, I'm in a bunch of WhatsApp group, WhatsApp groups. Everybody is sending money and aid to Eretz Israel, which they absolutely need to and should continue doing. But they generally think of it as being we're giving Tzedakah to them. Uh, the Rebbe is adding, "You're also giving Tzedakah for them." Since the Jewish people are all connected, the Israeli soldiers right now are unable to give Tzedakah themselves. When we give Tzedakah, we are not only giving Tzedakah to them, but also giving on their behalf, giving Tzedakah for them that will cause

03:36 a merit for them. Our giving of Tzedakah protects them both in the material that we give and also in the mitzvah that we are doing that gives them mitzvah protection. Just a, a multi-pronged approach to Tzedakah. Why not connect this with the learning of Torah, the living Torah? At least learn one passuk from the weekly Parsha. Or some statement from the Chazal or Halakha. Or, um, I, I think that means that, not a but that too. That you'll find in the Gemara somewhere. Whatever books you have, learn a verse of Torah for the soldiers. Everybody's saying to say Tehillim, and obviously do that too, but this is one that we're not seeing very often. The Rebbe's saying in this letter, if you want to help the merits of the soldiers, another way to do it is to open a book and to read even one line of Torah. This last section is the one I want to focus on for whatever time we have left. And God, the God of the hosts, he will protect you in all places that you are. Great is your merit. And great is your merit, and great is the merit of all those who protect our holy land. Those who protect our holy nation. And in the language of Rambam, that God will give them that the people who protect the Jewish people, people who are fighting in the war right now, they will have merits that will protect, that will give merits to them and their children forever.

04:57 Why am I excited about this last line, ? I'm excited about this last line not just because the Rebbe is saying, he's quoting Rambam, saying that the, that the soldiers that exist right now, so modern soldiers, will get this berakhah of soldiers who are fighting right now for Eretz Israel, who have incredible merits for themselves and their children forever. I'm excited about it because it's a that does not on the surface apply to our situation. It's in There he talks, I have it over here. There the Rambam talks about the laws of a Melkhames Mitzvah, of an obligatory war. If you're familiar with the, uh, sort of Halakhic discussion around what a war is exactly, there are broadly two categories of war, which are really three. There's a Melkhames Mitzvah and a Melkhames Reshus. That is a Melkhames Reshus, a optional war, is when the Jewish people decide they need to expand their boundaries or they need to, uh, show off to their enemies a little bit. It's never a defensive war. It's not necessarily necessary, but it's needed maybe for political reasons, socio-political reasons, for, uh, geopolitical reasons. That's called a Melkhames Reshus that has its own set of laws. There's also Melkhames Mitzvah, an obligatory war. That's when we're under attack or when we have to eradicate the Seven Nations or Amalek. They don't exist anymore. So the only modern situation of a Melkhames Mitzvah would be to eradicate people who are trying to kill us, a defensive war, to eradicate actual enemies

06:06 who pose an actual threat. Within Melkhames Mitzvah, there are also two kinds of Melkhames Mitzvah, and they're not both called that in all sources, which is why this gets a little complicated. There is a Melkhames Mitzvah that's mentioned in Rambam, which is that In the, in the laws of Melachim, that is, uh, down here. We'll jump down here. . What is a milchemes mitzvah? This is when you're fighting the Seven Nations, Milchemet Amalek or Amalek, or . They're saving the Jewish people from an enemy that comes to them. So that last one, saving the Jewish people from an enemy that comes to them, is the only one that's in play nowadays 'cause we don't have the Seven Nations, and we don't have Amalek. In any event, within milchemes mitzvah, there's also two kinds of milchemes mitzvah, really. There's a milchemes mitzvah like that's described there, and there's also a milchemes mitzvah as the Rambam describes in Hilchot Shabbos, when we need to defend a border city from people coming in to attack the border. Even if they're coming not to attack the border, they're coming in for financial reasons, we have a n- we have a mitzvah. The is mitzvah to engage in such a war. So there's different kinds of milchemes mitzvah. What's so interesting about the Rebbe's language in this letter is he's giving the soldiers fighting in Israel a berakhah that applies to a category of milchemes mitzvah that I would not have associated with any of our current wars. That is

07:13 the original category of milchemes mitzvah. He seems to be giving them the berakhah that Rambam gives to those who, based on Gemara, that Hashem gives. The berakhah that is reserved for soldiers who are fighting in a legitimate milchemes mitzvah, that is, uh, either against the Seven Nations, against Amalek, or to save the entire Jewish people from their enemy. I wanna read to you that entire section in Rambam with that in mind, because the Rebbe seems to be saying that everything in this paragraph would apply to modern soldiers. This comes with a footnote, in case you don't listen to the entire end of the shiur, that at the end of the shiur, we are gonna look at a letter where the Rebbe qualifies this a little bit and says not everything here applies to modern wars, but a good deal of it does. So here's what Rambam says should apply therefore to modern soldiers as well in this situation. Who is a person who is afraid? That is, the meloshim milchemah gets up in front of the Jewish people and says, "Anyone who's afraid shouldn't go to war." This is, who is, who does not have in their heart the strength to stand up to the throes of battle? Because as soon as a person enters into battle, they have a job. They have to put their trust in the mikveh Yisrael. In the salvation of the Jewish people. In the time of suffering. He should then know that it is on that he is doing

08:24 this war, that the war that he's fighting is for is for the unity of God. He puts his life in God's hand. He shouldn't be afraid. He shouldn't have terror. He shouldn't think of his wife, he shouldn't think of his children. He should remove their memory from his heart for the moment. And he should remove himself from all other thoughts so that he can focus on the war. And anybody who begins thinking about these things during and gets himself scared, say they violated a negative prohibition by being scared in the throes of battle. 'Cause it says in the passuk, you're not allowed to be afraid when you're going to war in a milchemes mitzvah. Somebody who's afraid during battle, the entire Jewish people's blood's on his neck. If a person does not act with a way of valor when they're engaged in a, in a, in a milchemes mitzvah. And they don't fight with all of their heart. With all of their soul. Like somebody who has murdered everybody. So many people who in the moment of milchemes mitzvah need to fight. They can't be having, uh, they can't be having second thoughts. It says in the passuk, so that he won't weaken or melt the hearts of his brothers like his heart. It says in Yermiyahu, "Cursed is someone who withholds his sword from blood." This is talking specifically about a time of milchemes mitzvah when it is, uh, when, when, uh, when normal considerations are not valid, and those who have them cause

09:46 death. Anybody who does fight a milchemes mitzvah with all of their heart, without any fear. And their only intent is to sanctify God's name. Here's the part that really matters for us. It is promised to him. He won't get hurt. He won't be damaged. No evil will befall him. He will one day build a proper house among the Jewish people. He will have merits for himself and his children forever. He will get a share in the world to come. These are the prizes for those who fight in a milchemes mitzvah. The prize is, first of all, they'll be safe. Second of all, they'll build a Israel. Third of all, they will have merits for themselves and their children forever. And fourth of all, they get a share in the world to come. They, they merit a share in the world to come. These are the promises for people who engage in milchemes mitzvah. What's so interesting is that up until now, reading this Rambam, in the normal Rambam cycle, I assumed that this applied to ancient wars. The Rebbe is very much saying in this letter that those berakhot apply to modern wars. The people who are engaged in war right now have all four of those berakhot waiting for them. And then he quotes a passuk. We don't have to read the passuk right now. It's a passuk from Sh'mot that says that this is exactly what will happen. Okay. The question, of course, is whether these dinim apply to modern wars. Certainly, some

10:53 of them appear to apply to the war that we're in right now, because in the Yom Kippur War, the Rebbe said these berakhot go to modern soldiers. The question is whether all of the rules apply, and for that, I wanted to show you a couple places in Nigla and then one fantastic letter from the Rebbe where he addresses this question directly. So first of all, there is the Rambam in, uh, in Hilchot Shabbos. It's the second paragraph of Hilchot Shabbos. The Rebbe very famously quotes it constantly. The reason why he quotes it constantly is it's the Rebbe's argument against giving away any land in Israel. He says that we are not allowed to give away any land, not because of some sort of a ideological reason or political reason, simply because it's that we are able to violate Shabbos for, uh... I'll read it to you. When it comes to, um, the non-Jewish nations, they are hurting the Jewish people. They're attacking the cities. If they come for financial things, they come to take our money, but not to hurt us, we do not violate Shabbos, and we don't make war with them. They can come and take our money. It's not a big deal. But this does not apply to a border city. If it's a border city, even if they only come to steal our tevel and kash, they come to steal straw. They don't really want anything of value. Since it's a border city, we go out with weapons, and we violate

12:01 the Shabbos in order to prevent them from attacking. The idea being that since they're a border town, if they get in there, they can get in and attack the entire Israel. At that point, then it becomes a mitzvah for the entire Jewish people to engage in war. Now, as we mentioned before, this isn't necessarily a milchemes mitzvah, but it becomes a mitzvah. The Rebbe is going to, in the letter, explain that the reason why he's willing to apply these berakhot to what is essentially this situation is because this situation in Rambam and Shabbos is called a mitzvah, and these berakhot apply to anyone who engages in a m- in a war that is a mitzvah. However, there's also Rambam in Hilchos Malachim says you need a king, that there is a king. You-- And, uh, i-that's what it implies. Ein hamelech nilcham tchila el milchemes mitzvah, that a king can only do a milchemes mitzvah initially. Ve'zeh milchemes mitzvah, and he describes what a milchemes mitzvah is, and that is one against the seven nations, Amalek, or to save the Jewish people. This is our key lashon. Ve'zeh tzitzel hamiyad sar sheba aleihem, to save the Jewish people from a, you know, from a, uh, a threat, a challenge, a pain that comes onto them, an enemy that comes to them. That's the right translation. Bach achach nilcham milchemes reshus. This is later on, you can do optional mitzvot, optional wars in order to expand your boundaries. I wanna point out a Meiri in Sota

13:04 because I don't know that a lot of people are aware of it. It's one that the religious Zionists quote often, and I'm not sure. You know, the Meiri is a relatively new book. I'm not sure how many of the early writers on the subject had access to the Meiri, that the Meiri says, kol milchemes malchi Yisrael aman higehem nilchami mehem ve'ehem. Any war that the kings of Israel fight or that the leaders of the Jewish people fight, even if they're not kings, against their enemies are automatically milchemes mitzvah. This is a Meiri, he's a Rishon, who says that any time the Jewish people fight a war against their enemies, it's always a milchemes mitzvah whether or not they have a king. Ki ga'am milchemes shulami, milchemes Amalek, milchemes kol atzar haba aleihem la'ashkis, la'ashkis nachalasam. For example, anybody against, any war against the Seven Nations, a war against Amalek, or a war against any enemy that comes to them, la'ashkis nachalasam, to destroy their nachala. This would seem to expand the definition of milchemes mitzvah beyond that which even the Rambam, uh, does. Now, on the question of whether our wars right now count as milchemes mitzvah, there is a fascinating and quite long letter from the Rebbe. I gave you in this document a link to a version of it on chabadlibrary.org that is formatted so poorly that it's almost impossible to read. Shuv matzatsi, that in Eichom Anacham, before this was published in Igris, they organized it as shaila and mana, where you

14:11 can see each question and the Rebbe's answer lined up, and it's a little easier to read, so we're gonna look at it in Eichom Anacham. But you should be aware that this is also in Igris, the volume twenty-four, and the letter is tes shin ayin tes. The Rebbe, this was right after the Six-Day War, and the Rebbe had mentioned in a sicha basically what we saw today in this letter, that the soldiers fighting in the Six-Day War were going to get all of the brachos that Rambam assigns to somebody who participates in a melcha- in a melchemes mitzvah. And the writer asks how that's possible. So the writer starts off by asking, al nisgash ze milchemes mitzvah, the Rebbe implies or says clearly that wars in Israel nowadays count as milchemes mitzvah. Milchemes mitzvah yichalu lihiyes nakas sheyesh melech b'Yisrael. The question is, I thought we needed a Jewish king in order to do this. That's the implication of Rambam that we just saw, that it looks like you need a king for a milchemes mitzvah. We don't have one. The Rebbe disagrees. He says, taruti im galubaze. I'm very surprised by this. Not clear, not, not clear at all that a person needs a, uh, that it's not clear at all that the Jewish people need a king in order to engage in milchemes mitzvah. Ekabedura im harav, they think maybe it's Rav Yoelus, but it's not clear who that was. The footnotes are not sure. Uh, as I said at the fabregen, didn't

15:10 came, because if so, there's a couple reasons why the Rebbe says, "I'm pretty sure you don't need a king for a milchemes mitzvah." Reason number one, all of the king, all of the wars that happened between Yehoshua and Shaul then would not have been a milchemes mitzvah. Why? Yehoshua had a din melech. Shaul had a din melech. Everybody in between, ein melech b'Yisrael. There was no king among the Jewish people in that time period. Given that there was no king during that time period, we would have to say that every war fought prior to Shaul and after Yehoshua was a milchemes mitzvah, and that is not at all the pashut understanding of those wars. Point number two, apizeh le nisbar beShas klal din kol milchemes sef ba'yasheni. This would also leave us not knowing what the din is of any of the mitzvahs at the end of ba'yasheni. After ba'yasheni, we didn't, uh, end of ba'yasheni, near the end of ba'yasheni, we had several wars. Also, these were wars that Tanayim participated in, and, uh, they wouldn't have participated in a war that wasn't a milchemes mitzvah. And Shas does not explain what the din of those milchemes are, so mestama they are milchemes mitzvah. So that was the second reason to believe it's milchemes mitzvah, is that we had wars in the end of ba'yasheni without a king, and the Tanayim participated in them, and the Gemara sure seems to imply, at least, through their participation, through the lack of comment on it, that

16:10 these were milchemes mitzvah. And three, said, ein lam din milchemes mitzvah klal ve'eid. Says furthermore, take a look at Yesyphon. He says, "Check Josephus." Says in Josephus, it sounds like, it's an interesting thing for the Rebbe to say in a letter. He says, "Look in Josephus, and it sounds like from Josephus that they extend, that they appointed a meshuch l'milchemah for these wars in a time when there was no king." It was, this was the end of ba'yasheni, Josephus, and it seems that they appointed a meshuch l'milchemah. Nonetheless, a, a, a kohen anointed to do all of the things that are done during a milchemes mitzvah, and they didn't have a king. So again, sounds like these are milchemes mitzvah. But then the Rebbe writes in kolef, and nonetheless, lelo ze nis kavati kiblal halan. I did not mean to imply that this was a literal milchemes mitzvah, as I will be explaining later. So the Rebbe says, "While I could justify this as a pretend, as, uh, justify the existence of a milchemes mitzvah without a king, I don't believe modern Israeli wars are literally milchemes mitzvah. I think they're kind of milchemes mitzvah." The Rebbe is going to explain this later in the letter, but suffice for now to say that the Rebbe is going to basically give us all of the advantages of a milchemes mitzvah with none of the disadvantages when it comes to Israeli wars. That is, that Israeli soldiers get all the brachos and all the protection, but they

17:11 don't end up with a lot of the less, uh, less desirable obligations that come with a milchemes mitzvah. We'll see the Rebbe do that in a moment. Second question. Lecher yech lashon koshi anal api, haRambam hilchos shabbos perek beis. The writer says, "Maybe we could just say that this is a regular mitzvah to go to war," uh, the same way that Ram- the same that Rambam does in Shabbos. Remember, we saw the Rambam in Shabbos that says that anybody who attacks a border city, it is a mitzvah to go out and fight them, even if they're coming only for monetary reasons. This writer is saying, "Let's not get into milchemes mitzvah. Let's just focus on this Rambam." The Rebbe says, "Yeah, that's exactly what I said." Zeh peresh yiskarti es ha'tamim hakash shalom nefashos. I mentioned that in the sicha. I do think that's what's happening. Uh, haino halashon Rambam sham. That's the lashon of a forush b'Gemara. Ketsat mishnah, yiduz manaze. It's m'forush in Gemara and Poskim that this applies even nowadays, so we can use that of a Rambam halashon mitzvah. And in Rambam, he uses the language of mitzvah. So we don't need the milchemes mitzvah that would give us all of the baggage of a normal milchemes mitzvah. We can call modern wars the milchemes mitzvah al derech ovi san Rambam Shabbos. Look at the lashon here. Mitzvah kol Yisrael shel yotzeyim ul'aveid letzei y'tzla'ah zaracha em shome'a batzel latziyon v'ad artika kam ozalos b'Shabbos. It's a mitzvah for all the

18:13 Jewish people to come out and help with that war effort, and the lashon in Rambam is mitzvah. However, the Rebbe has a diyuk here, and I can almost anticipate that this would have been Sruli's question if the Rebbe didn't have this diyuk. It sure was mine. Af she'ein hach nich tzeh al ger b'chalak pratim b'milchemes mitzvah v'sichah seita. Even though the lashon in Rambam is the lashon of mitzvah, we don't necessarily need to keep all the rules associated with mitzvah. That's how I'm associated with the Melchamis Mitzvah. Point three, the Rebbe continues, and this is not a question, this is just a continuation of his prior point. I told you the formatting is weird. This is a mitzvah to go to this particular kind of war. Therefore, we can apply what Ramam says from the other rules of, of, of, of Melchamis Malchama, that they should know that they are fighting for the Yichud Hashem. So the Rebbe says that even though we are dealing with the lower category of Melchamis Mitzvah, when it comes to modern wars, we still get a lot of the advantages of the higher category, namely, that they should-- that all the soldiers should know that they're fighting for Yichud Hashem. They're fighting for the unity of God's name. This applies even when you're fighting your enemies, not just for a official Melchamis Mitzvah against the seven nations on Amalek. The Rebbe says there's no reason to be Machalik and say that when there's a king ordering a war and

19:27 a formal ancient war, that there would be a difference in whether we're fighting for God's name. Either way, either way, we're fighting for God's name. Next question. They ask, . This is a harsher question. It says in Ramam that their intent, the intent of these soldiers, if they want the blessings, need to be that their only intent is to sanctify God's name. And it sounds like from Ramam that they won't get these brachos if they don't have the intent to sanctify God's name. Says the questioner, when it comes to our situation, it looks like . These soldiers who are fighting in the war right now, a good majority of them are secular, a good majority of them are not fighting on the surface to sanctify God's name. Maybe they shouldn't get the brachos. The Rebbe writes back, "Simple answer, . Yeah, a lot of them, not all of them. Not all of them. Many of the soldiers are there for the right reasons." Follow-up question. The questioner continues to press, and the questioner asks the Rebbe, says that when it comes to our situation, many people who are going out to war, the majority of them at the very least, they are not religious now. They won't be religious even afterwards, and it doesn't make sense to give them the bracha that they should build a Bayis Nehen BeYisrael. These brachos only apply to the religious people who go out with the intent to sanctify God's name, and here the Rebbe gives a longer answer.

20:48 It's possible that before and even after they go to war, they are not religious, but a small port-- a portion of them, . Many of them, a portion of them at least, will change and be inspired at the time of real threat to their lives, and they will then have religious feelings. And the Rebbe says, in that case, at the moment where they are, where they're scared, at the moment where they are in a situation where their life is threatened, they say that there are no atheists in a foxhole. The Rebbe is saying at that moment that they're in the foxhole and they're not atheists, at that moment, they're going to get all the blessings that are promised to those who trust in Hashem during a war. So as for the religious soldiers, they have it automatically. As for the non-religious soldiers, the first moment that they feel a streak of religiousness during battle, they'll get all the brachos that are waiting for them for the, uh, for those who are religiously involved in the battle. Another important point the Rebbe says, and we see this from the that is in the Torah, it says, that, uh, Zevulun should be happy and Yissachar should also be happy, but it says Zevulun first and Zevulun supported Yissachar. That somebody who fights, they can get all these brachos. It's, uh, There is definite schar for those who are defending the Jewish people physically and the lav dacha for those who are studying Torah. What we see by

22:13 Zevulun and Yissachar, that there is special reward that comes to those who enable Torah study by defending it with their bodies, with their money. And the last question here, I think, or one of the last questions here. The Ramam implies that people who are allowed to join the war effort are only those who do not have sins, and therefore, that the brachos should only apply for those who do not have sins. The Rebbe answers the hephe, the opposite. In any event- Interesting ...this per- this person asks the Rebbe, shouldn't these brachos only apply to someone who doesn't have any sins? And the Rebbe says, "Absolutely not." So the next question is that it says here, sha-shaila, was this, was the sixth day war a miracle from heaven? And the Rebbe's answer, two point five million It absolutely was a miracle. Millions of Jews were saved, including Yeshiva students. It was certainly a and it was from the site of holiness. And if not, says the Rebbe, why in Williamsburg did they say Tehillim? Why were they told to say Tehillim in Williamsburg if they weren't expecting a miracle? So the Rebbe's saying, if you weren't expecting a miracle, why in Williamsburg were they saying Tehillim? Uh, the Rebbe, a lot of this letter is apparently geared toward a group that's in Williamsburg, as we will see in the next comment, a Satmar group. And, uh, point two, what exactly do you think you accomplished by saying Tehillim? You think you, you think you said Tehillim,

23:31 and then there wasn't a miracle? You said Tehillim, and there was a miracle, so obviously it was a miracle. Uh, the Satmar theme now continues in the final note in this letter, and this is the point eight. Shaila, they ask the question, They say it would seem that Hashem would not make a miracle through people who oppose Hashem. Uh, the hanging implication here being that there are secular Jews or secular Zionists that are in Israel, and God would not make a miracle through them because they are, in the words of the asker, those who oppose Hashem. Obviously, not something that, uh, that I think, but, uh, this is the question. The answer is Dr. Kasner Okay, so there's, uh, there's some hanging implications in here. Uh, I believe what the Bacholos are is that Dr. Kasner was a, uh, was a Zionist who was involved in saving the Satmar Rebbe from the Nazis . So, uh, the Rebbe's answer, if, if, if you're not able to do a miracle by way of a Zionist, then, uh, then let's talk about a miracle that happened to the Satmar Rebbe, which was by way of a Zionist. A perhaps uncomfortable fact, but, uh, clearly God does work through Zionists, does work his miracle through Zionists, and you need no further-- If you need any proof to that, look at your Rebbe, who was miraculously saved through a Zionist. Uh, so he says, the Rebbe says, furthermore, if you really wanna know whether there was a miracle, a

24:56 judge is only allowed to judge according to what their eyes have seen. So who should we ask? Let's ask the Dayanim of Yerushalayim, whether there was a miracle in the sixth day war, whether these were miracles. And, uh, also Rav, uh, Rav Sheikh, Rav Sheikh Epstein says, if you ask these particular people who are involved in the Eida Haredis in Yerushalayim and in Eretz Yisrael, ask Dayanim who whether they saw a miracle, they're gonna tell you there was a miracle." So yeah, there was a miracle, and the fact that it happened by way of Zionists, not the first time we saw a miracle by way of Zionists. In any event, uh, we're way over time, but I do wanna summarize everything we've done because we covered a ton of ground today on a very important issue. We saw a letter from the Rebbe where he says that Tzedakah, when we give Tzedakah, it protects us and it, uh, protects the entire Jewish people, even those who are unable to give Tzedakah right now. What's so special about that is that that means that when somebody donates Tzedakah to help with the war that's going on right now, they not only are giving money to help with a war effort, they also are protecting the soldiers by g-- by helping them with a mitzvah. That is, we are doing a mitzvah. That mitzvah protects them because they can't do that mitzvah right now. So our giving of Tzedakah is both, uh, financial protection and mitzvah protection

25:57 during a time of war. What the Rebbe also mentioned is that we should learn a little bit of Torah for the soldiers, even if it's just one pasuk. And near the end, we dove into a much larger discussion. Hashem says... I'm sorry. The Rebbe says that Hashem says that-- Hashem says. Hashem says that the Jewish people who fight Jew-- who fight wars, milchemes mitzvah, obligatory wars are protected. They get merits for themselves and their children forever. We saw more details of this in Ramam. There's a lot of blessings that they get. We saw four blessings that they get total. We saw that, let's highlight the four blessings that the Israeli soldiers get. They won't be hurt. That's number one. Two, they'll build a proper home in among the Jewish people. Three, they will give merits to their children and their descendants forever. And four, they will get a share in the world to come. Those four advantages come to someone who engages in a milchemes mitzvah, and the Rebbe applies them to modern Jewish soldiers. We ask the question, is that really the case? Do these dinim actually apply to modern wars? We looked at some Rishonim, and in the end, we looked at this letter from the Rebbe where someone basically attacks this premise and says repeatedly that they think for a lot of reasons that these rules would not apply. And the Rebbe's conclusion, to make a very long story very, very short, is that while this is-- while our modern wars are

26:58 not literal milchemes mitzvah the way they're described in Rambam Hilchot Melachim, they are mitzvah wars as described in Rambam Hilchot Shabbos. And th-therefore, all of the blessings that are mentioned in Rambam regarding real milchemes mitzvah do apply to our soldiers right now. They'll get all four of those blessings and all sorts of protections and, uh, and will merit in front-- merit to build healthy and happy homes within the Jewish people, merits that will last them and their descendants forever, and also give them a share in the world to come. As to the question of whether this applies also to secular soldiers, the Rebbe gives a resounding yes. He gives a resounding yes in a few different ways, in a few different places in the letter, but this is definitely a blanket bracha. This does not just apply to religious soldiers or those who are going for seemingly the right reasons. These blessings apply to every single person who defends the Jewish people, uh, back then and absolutely right now.