We Didn’t Fear the Shorter, Longer Way |
There is a popular and powerful song sung in Religious Zionist circles – I myself have sung it many times with all my heart and soul – that declares “The eternal nation does not fear a long path.” But I think that along the way, we forgot that the inverse is equally true: we ought to fear taking the short way.
There is a well-known story in the Talmud (Eruvin 53b) in which Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chanania admits that he was once defeated by a child sitting at a fork in the road. When the rabbi asks him which path leads to the city, the youngster replies that there are two options: one is short and long, the second is long and short. The power of the first word in these paradoxical options apparently wins out, and Rabbi Yehoshua chooses the first path, only to discover that it did, indeed, bring him rather quickly to the outskirts of the city, but to a point from which it is impossible to actually reach his final destination. At a dead end, Rabbi Yehoshua is forced to retrace his steps all the way back to the child in the fork in the road, and to start out again on the second, long-short, way. Thus, ultimately, not only did the short way not bring him any closer to the city, it actually served to make his journey longer, more exhausting, and more frustrating. The delicious irony in this story lies in the fact that the elderly and wise rabbi turns out to be the one who acts like a child, impatient and hasty, while it is the child who has the more mature, patient, long-term outlook.
In the wake of the horrors of October 7th, it seemed that a new short way suddenly opened up for us, and many people jumped at it with fervor and certainty. They ecstatically sang “We’re returning to Gush Katif,” sure that this war would end quickly with the resettlement of Gaza and the new settlement of South Lebanon. They were convinced that 2025 would be “the year of sovereignty,” as Minister Smotrich confidently exclaimed, the declaration of Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. They felt deep in their bones that if we had begun attacking Persia/Iran on the Shabbat when we read of the command to destroy Amalek, then without a doubt, when we attack again on the last day of Passover, we will see miracles akin to the splitting of the sea, and the ayatollahs’ regime will fall. At the very least, there was a feeling that we are on the way to total victory, to total annihilation of all of our enemies and all the threats against us, the path at the end of which we will........