Rising Lion: Kibbutz Courage and Educational Vision |
The Hebrew name of Israel’s current military operation – Sha’agat Ha-ari [The Lion’s Roar] – evokes biblical phrases, but it also harks back to the titles of responsa collections from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: Sha’agat Aryeh by Rabbi Aryeh Yehuda Leib (ca. 1630-1714) and the more famous Sha’agat Aryeh by Rabbi Aryeh Leib Ginzburg (ca. 1695-1785), which was followed by a supplementary volume: She’elot U-teshuvot Sha’agat Aryeh Ha-hadashot.
Operation Sha’agat Ha-ari, which began on 28 February 2026, was not the first time an Israeli military campaign echoed the title of a responsa collection. Less than a year earlier, Iran and Israel clashed for twelve days in June 2025. The English name of that campaign was contested; President Donald Trump dubbed it the “Twelve-Day War” – invoking Israel’s miraculous victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. While the Six-Day War brought years of quiet, the Twelve-Day War brought a mere eight-month respite.
The official Hebrew name of that operation was ‘Am Ke-lavi, literally “A Lioness-like People,” but officially rendered as Operation Rising Lion. The title was taken from the biblical verse where Balaam tries to curse the Israelites but ends up blessing them: “Behold, the people shall rise like a lioness, and like a lion leap up; it shall not lie down before it will eat the prey and drink the blood of the slain” (Numbers 23:24).
The Lavi [lioness or lion] is not only a textual motif; it is also embedded in modern Israeli life and has been a popular symbol long before Operation Rising Lion. In Zur Hadassa, back in 2009, we named the local religious state primary school Lavi.........