The other day at a seudat Purim (Purim meal) one of the guests, an orthodox, Mizrahi boy from Israel who is married to one of the host's daughters, said that - in context of Iran today - we - Jews - should prefer to sit in yeshivot and pray that HaShem will protect us than to go out to defend ourselves.
Given that the host is Moroccan and his wife a Yemenite and that the only other guests were Moroccan, this opinion was not greeted enthusiastically.
Granted, this lad had taken to heart the admonishment to drink until he no longer could tell the difference between "bless Mordachi" and "curse H*man."
People who have visited this blog before know where I stand on people who spend their life in yeshiva and give nothing back.
It is one thing if the person truly is a hakham and will someday be a "gadol b'dor" (a rabbinical giant of the generation), but the majority of the long-term denizens of yeshivot, especially in Israel where they are government subsidized, are just "professional students."
But to suggest that HaShem will take care of us while to do nothing flies in the face of Jewish history.
The Purim holiday reminds us that Jews took up arms and defeated determined anti-Semites across the world from Cush to Hodu - all of Ashasvarosh's world.
We took up arms on numerous occasions between the time we left Egypt until we could live in relative peace in Greater Israel.
Without a doubt, HaShem played a major role in all of our military adventures. When He turned his back on us, we suffered defeats. במדבר, שלח לך, י''ד מ''
When He was with us, we prevailed.
But each time, WE armed ourselves and went into combat.
We didn't sit in yeshivot and pray that HaShem will protect us.
We also did not sit in yeshiva and expect to survive on handouts.
Almost all of the luminaries of the Talmuds had some way to generate an income. Some were into retail and wholesale - Meir sold beer, for example. One of the many Yohanons made shoes, ergo he was known as Yohanon the Sandler. Some were teachers; most attempted to earn an "honest" living to support themselves and their families.
For an Israeli-born Mizrahi to say, even in his drunkenness, that all Jews should head for the yeshivot and pray that HaShem will defeat our enemies seems totally out of place. This lad has spent time in yeshivot, but he apparently failed to learn anything about Torah or about the scholars and religious leaders of the Talmudic period, the period on which most yeshivot spend all their study time.
It was an interesting afternoon.
Although sometimes it is difficult,
הריני מקבל עלי מצוה עשה של ואהבת לרעך כמוך, והריני אוהב כל אחד מבני ישראל כנפשי ומאודי
