by Rosh Yeshivat Beit El Rav Zalman Baruch Melamed, speaking to soldiers of the IDF Chief Rabbinate currently engaged in identifying corpses and related work, yeshiva.co, translated by Hillel Fendel.
I have experienced many wars in my lifetime. I was a boy during the Second World War, and I remember that after it ended, when it became clear what had happened in Europe, there was a special Yizkor prayer in our synagogue in Tel Aviv, and it was filled with terrible sobbing and loud wailing; everyone there had lost parts of their families.
A few years later, the War of Independence broke out. I was only 10 years old, but I remember that once again we had to deal with dead and wounded. Many people were killed during that war, including a neighbor of mine.
And after that, I experienced the Sinai Campaign, the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, and the wars in Lebanon. We have had many wars – but after each one of them, we came out strengthened. During the War for Independence, we were 600,000 Jews here, and now we are many, many times that amount.
We are in the midst of a long process of the Ingathering of the Exiles, and the price we pay for acquiring the Land is a high one. The Talmud tells us that Eretz Yisrael is acquired through tribulations and afflictions. To this, the Gaon of Vilna adds (Kol HaTor 1,13) that during the process of Redemption, we must remember this truth – and know that "in this way the Land is genuinely acquired." He continues: "We must therefore not, Heaven forbid, retreat at all even if there is some difficulty, Heaven forbid – but rather be sure that these hardships will themselves sprout the deliverance."
Among the tests that the Patriarch Abraham had to undergo was being forced to descend to Egypt because of a famine in the Land that G-d had just then promised him. The Zohar states that if it were not for this test, Avraham would not have been who he was. Without the need to meet and withstand this and other hardships, he would never have reached the exalted level he ultimately attained. And this is how we must view the difficulties of our times.
I thought to myself of these souls of all the dead ascending to the Heavens – and the Master of the Universe greets them and says, "You were killed simply because you were a Jew, because you are a son of Mine – so you have to be close to Me here." Even those who didn't live Torah or know about it in their lives, we have heard that in their final moments they said Shma Yisrael. And if they didn't say it, they thought Shma Yisrael, or felt it in some way. They were all killed with a connection to their source.
In one case, a mother and daughter sat in their shelter with terrorists all around them, knowing they could burst in at any moment. At one point, the little girl said to her mother, "We have to say Shma Yisrael." Her mother said, "Not yet; only at the end do we say Shma Yisrael." They never before spoke this way – but that's how it is, the entire nation of Israel is connected in some way or other to its source.
And now, the souls of these bodies which are being taken care of so lovingly and caringly, look down upon those who are doing this holy work, and they are very happy that they are being cared for, being identified, and being brought for a Jewish burial. The merit of those who are doing this work is tremendous, with all the terrible difficulties that we know that are involved. The greater the hardship, the more meritorious is the work.
With G-d's help, we will come out of this situation even stronger. Every tribulation that comes upon Israel brings salvation with it. We know that we will not revert to our previous state, but to a new level of the Nation of Israel, a new togetherness and unity, a Nation of Israel stronger and healthier and more connected to its roots, with the help of G-d.
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