The Chabad exchange, part 4: Chabad and Israel

Rabbi David Eliezrie is the Director of North County Chabad –Congregation Beit Meir Ha'Cohen, Yorba Linda, CA. He serves as President of the Rabbinical Council of Orange County and Long Beach; Board Member of the Jewish Federation and Family Services of Orange County; Member of the Allocation Committee of the Federation, Chairman of the Chabad International Crisis Committee; Chair of the Chabad Partners Conference; and Member of the Advisory Committee of the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute.

This exchange focuses on Rabbi Eliezrie’s new book, The Secret of Chabad (The Toby Press, 2015). Here you can find parts one and two and three.

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Dear Rabbi Eliezrie,

In your previous answer you mentioned the late Rebbe’s involvement with Israel and how Israeli leaders would consult with him regularly. I’d like to finish this exchange by asking you about Chabad’s current attitude toward Israel: Is there a difference between the goals and the means of Chabad in the Diaspora and those it has in Israel?

Yours,

Shmuel.

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Dear Shmuel,

Chabad’s roots in Israel go back over two centuries to the first Chassidic Aliyah at the end of the 18th century. Chabad’s founder Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the Alter Rebbe, founded Colel Chabad in 1788 to strengthen the fledgling immigration from Europe. (Today Colel Chabad is oldest charity in Israel and sponsors a network of social services and educational programs that span the country).

Chabad’s primary goals globally have always been educating Jews in Torah, connecting Jews to their heritage and providing for their needs. However the challenges in Israel are different.  On one hand Israeli society is deeply rooted in tradition. The intersection of religion and state creates a new set of challenges and opportunities. Chabad is the only major religious movement in Israel that is not engaged in party politics. That gives it the ability to transcend the societal divide and serve as a bridge between segments of the society that historically are at odds which each other. On the other hand by standing outside the political circus Chabad institutions do not always receive the support that other segments of the religious community do.

A modern secular oriented state posed a major dilemma for religious Jews and a variety of reactions.  The religious Zionist saw the state as imbued with sanctity. The Haredi community looked with disparagement and anxiety at the secular society that surrounded them.  Chabad straddles a middle ground. While still believing in the ancient principle of Jewish belief of the hope for Moshiach, Chabad recognizes the unique miracles of Jewish survival in its ancient homeland. Chabad has not endorsed the insularity of the Haredi community.  It contributes to the country, sending its sons to the army and playing an active role in the work force. At the same time preserving a lifestyle filled with Chassidic values.

As one prominent Chabad leader in Israel told me, “We are in the gray area and that is toughest”. Attempting to balance tradition and modernity, the fidelity to Torah and the responsibility to the society as a whole while standing above the political fray.

On a deeper level Chabad has strived in Israel to instill the idea that the connection of the Jewish people to its homeland is not because of the vote of the UN, rather that the Torah teaches us of the unique spiritual destiny of the Jewish people as intrinsically linked to the Land of Israel. This is even more important now to the younger generation of Israelis. By  appreciating the depth of the Torah’s teachings and the history of the Jewish people that reaches back to the days that the Patriarchs and Matriarchs walked the ground of Eretz Yisroel it will make them more connected and more attached to the homeland of the Jewish people.

Finally Chabad has attempted in Israel to help the most vulnerable. The vast numbers living below the poverty line, victims of terror and families of soldiers whose sons and daughters have been wounded or fallen in the defense of the country. 

Two stories of my youth while studying in Chabad’s central Yeshiva in Kfar Chabad stand out to me as lessons of Chabad’s goals in Israel.

As Yeshiva students we would visit Israeli soldiers on the holidays. Once we headed to the Lebanese border. The soldiers were stationed in a line of small maozim – fortified outposts along the border patrolling for terrorist incursions. We entered the bunker embedded in the ground where the soldiers were living. On one wall was a picture you would expect in any soldier barracks, a woman far from fully attired. On the other was a picture of the Rebbe. I was shocked by the incongruence and asked the soldiers why. They replied, “The Rebbe truly cares about us, every holiday he sends you to visit us.”

The second story happened during the war of attrition between Syria and Israel. We had arrived on Purim to a front line base in the Golan.  We broke out the hamentachen, the music and started the celebration of the holiday. The Syrians decided to liven up the festivities with an artillery barrage. The commander ordered our immediate evacuation from the combat zone. As we sat in back of the truck speeding away from the shelling, an old Chassid turned to us students. He had been jailed in Siberia by Stalin for educating Jews in Russia. He told us “today you had a great merit, by putting your life on the line you had true self-sacrifice for another.”