Yom Ha-Zikaron Le-Chalelei Tzahal
The Value of the Fallen of Israel’s Wars
Since the establishment of the State of Israel, our national day of independence, Yom Ha-atzma’ut, has been celebrated immediately after our national day of remembrance, Yom Ha-zikaron Le-chalelei Tzahal (literally: Memorial Day for the IDF Fallen). The proximity of these two occasions is unique. Yom Ha-zikaron is a day of linking the nation to those who sacrificed their lives in order to protect it; it is a sad day, full of grandeur and gratitude. On the other hand, Yom Ha-atzma’ut is a joyful celebration. The transition between these days, between sunset and nightfall, is not straightforward, particularly for the bereaved families.
The reason for this juxtaposition is to create awareness of the connection between freedom and its price, that “No country is handed to a people on a silver platter.” The surety for the State of Israel’s existence is the readiness to pay the price for it.
The Sages note a significant phenomenon: when one is going through an unsettled area and happens upon a cemetery, the nearest town cannot be far away!
Alternatively: “God will reply to you on your day of anguish” (Tehillim 20:2). This can be compared to a father and son travelling together. When the son
became tired and asked the father how far they still had to go, he replied:
“My son, take the following as a sign: If you see a cemetery, know that the
city is not far away.” [1]
In our generation, we have applied this dictum, “If you see a cemetery, know that the city (medina – which in modern Hebrew means “nation-state”) is not far away,” in a way that goes beyond its simple meaning: as a national truism. This means that in order for a nation to exist, its citizens must be ready to pay the price for its existence, and this price is a costly one (in terms of resources and lives), heavy and harsh. Before we reach the medina, we reach the cemetery; at its gate, we see the heavy cost. This is truly incalculable, since the loss of every individual is the loss of an entire world, as the Mishna notes:
For this reason man was created one and alone in the world: to teach that whosoever destroys a single soul is regarded as though he destroyed a complete world, and whosoever saves a single soul is regarded as though he saved a complete world; and for the sake of peace among created beings that one man should not say to another, "My father was greater than yours," and that heretics should not say, "There are many ruling powers in heaven"; also to proclaim the greatness of the blessed Supreme King of kings! For a man stamps a hundred coins with one seal, and they are all alike, but the Supreme King of kings stamps every man with the seal of the Adam, and not one of them is like his fellow. Therefore, every single person must say: “The world was created for my sake.”[2]
Let us consider the meaning of Yom Ha-zikaron from the viewpoint
of faith.
On this day, we trumpet the self-sacrifice of the fallen, the terrible price which they paid for the existence of the nation and the state. The individual’s selflessness allows the community to survive, which is a divine, heavenly form of kindness, bodily kindness, “true kindness”. The Sages associate this with our patriarch Avraham, who excelled in all three dimensions of the virtue of kindness:
There are three types of generosity: first, financial generosity; second, bodily generosity; third, intellectual generosity. Our patriarch Avraham had all three of these: financial generosity, as it says (Bereishit 21:33), “And he planted a tamarisk;” corporeal generosity, for he saved his nephew Lot and went to war for his sake; intellectual generosity for he taught all of the people the just path, until they converted…[3]
Bodily generosity and kindness is expressed by going to war. It is connected to the highest level of kindness, true kindness.
“And deal with me in kindness and truth” — now is there
false kindness, that he must say “kindness and truth”? A common proverb says: When your friend's son dies, share his sorrow; but when your friend dies, cast off your sorrow. He said to him, in other words: "If you are kind to me after my death, that would be true kindness. [4]
“True kindness” is done when the giver cannot hope to receive any compensation.
“Kindness and truth” — kindness that is done with the dead is true kindness, for one does not expect any payment or reward[5].
In doing “true kindness”, one may emulate God, following the Creator who bestows kindness upon all of His creations, knowing that they can never repay Him:
The eighth mitzva is that we are commanded to emulate God, blessed be He, to the best of our ability. The source of
this commandment is His statement, "And you shall walk in His ways" (Devarim 28:9). This commandment is repeated in the verse (Devarim 11:22), "To walk in all his ways." This is explained in the words of the Sifrei (Ekev) "Just as God is called merciful, so too, you must be merciful. Just as God is called kind, so too, you must be kind. Just as God is called righteous, so too, you must be righteous. Just as God is called kind (hasid), so too, you must be kind."
This commandment is also repeated in the verse (Devarim 13:5), "Walk after God your Lord." This too is explained (Sota 14a) as emulating the good deeds and fine attributes which are used to allegorically describe God, Who is immeasurably exalted over everything. [6]
When Israel returned to its land and was forced to return and fight for its existence – we contemplate, with boundless esteem and amazement, the sons of our nation who gave their lives to save the community. This is true kindness; this is bodily kindness.
When a soldier or officer endangers his life and his body in combat for the sake of the community or for the sake of another soldier, this is true hesed. There is no expectation of being compensated, for if one is injured or killed in this endeavor, there is no way to repay him in this world.
However, this is not only kindness on the individual level; this is kindness on the national level. War is not an issue of one individual or another, but rather of the nation as a whole, for no individual can wage a war. Even the enemy soldier has no intent to harm an individual soldier on the battlefield; he aims to undermine the whole, politically and territorially, not a collection of individuals. An individual who risks his life in war and protects the nation from its enemies does kindness for the nation as a whole. This is therefore a unique type of hesed; it is not limited to the individual, but expanded to the nation as a whole. In going out to war, the combatant must focus on a specific target. Indeed, the Rambam writes in his Laws of War:
Once a soldier enters the throes of battle, he should rely on the Hope of Israel and their Savior in times of need. He should realize that he is fighting for the sake of the oneness of God's Name. Therefore, he should place his soul in his hand and not show fright or fear. He should not worry about his wife or children. On the contrary, he should wipe their memory from his heart, removing all thoughts from his mind except the war…
However, anyone who fights with his entire heart, without fear, with the intention of sanctifying God's name alone, can be assured that he will find no harm, nor will evil overtake him. He will be granted a proper family in Israel and gather merit for himself and his children forever. He will also merit eternal life in the world to come as I Shmuel 25:28-29 states: 'God will certainly make my lord a faithful house, for my lord fights the wars of God and evil will not be found with you... and my lord's soul will be bound in a bond of life with God.'[7]
The soldiers who gave their lives to save the public and fell in Israel’s conflicts sanctifying God’s name are considered to be of the highest caliber, reserved for the wholly righteous. As explained in
the Talmud,
- R. Yosef b. R. Yehoshua b. Levi was ill and fell into the state of a coma. When he recovered, his father asked him, "What did you see?"
“I heard it stated, 'Happy is he who comes here possessed of learning, and I further heard it said that martyrs (harugei malkhut) occupy an eminence which nobody else can attain.'" Who are they? If Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues, are they merely harugei malkhut? Rather, the martyrs of Lod. [8]
The Talmud explains how R. Yehoshua b. Levi overheard in the highest realms that the highest level there is reserved for harugei malkhut (literally, “those put to death by the crown”). We are talking about those who have no other spiritual high degree than their having surrendered their lives in order to save their people, as Rashi explains:
“Are they merely harugei malkhut” — do they have no other high degree to their credit aside from this alone? [9]
The martyrs of Lod were two brothers who sacrificed their lives for Israel by confessing to the murder of a princess, of which all Israel had been accused. [10]
- R. Akiva, his students, and his colleagues indeed “sacrificed their lives for Israel,” but they had the additional merit of Torah study, and therefore there is no great innovation in saying that they have a uniquely high position in the upper spheres. Lulianus and Pappas, on the other hand, did not have great spiritual merits, but they merited this high position because of the noble act of sacrificing their lives for the Jewish people. [11]
In addition, the Talmud says about harugei malkhut, killed for no other reason than that they were Jews, that all of their sins are atoned for, and they are considered supremely righteous: [12]
Since they were killed unjustifiably, they have atonement.
From this, we may derive that any Jew killed by non-Jews receives atonement for his sins. Indeed, this is the ruling of Shulhan Arukh – an apostate, for whom one does not mourn by the letter of the law, has a different status if killed by non-Jews. In this case, he is mourned.
One who is accustomed to commit sins is not mourned, all the more so if he is an apostate for idolatry. There are those who
say that an apostate killed by non-Jews should be mourned. [13]
Elsewhere he rules:
There are those who say that an apostate killed by non-Jews has Kaddish recited for him. [14]
Hatam Sofer terms one who is killed by non-Jews for being a Jew is called a “holy one”:
One killed by non-Jews is called a “holy one.” [15]
In light of this law, R. Kook eulogized two Ha-shomer members who were not Torah-observant, but were killed by Arabs before World War I:
O illustrious author, Mr. A.Z. Rabinowitz, you asked one simple thing of me, a request which any man who is not obstinate could not fail to fulfill. You think, rightly so, that one must fulfill it immediately, soberly and with alacrity: one tear, for the bottle of tears, for the slain of our people. A new bottle, new tears, new slain, fresh and young slain, whose blood was spilled in the land of the patriarchs. They are not simply young people, but youths with heart and emotion, souls afire, who came here in order to revive the nation and the land, who rejected every ideal of life, choosing one alone: to build a nation, returning it to its soil. What heart would not melt, what eye will not tear up at these beloved sons of Zion, reckoned like so many potsherds!...
These are the beloved slain, despite the fact that I do not
know their private lives. They deserve all glory of the fallen: we must mourn them and eulogize them, not only by the feelings of the heart, but by the dictates of halakha…
By the deep reckoning of a clear universe, we may hearken and listen to the voice in Rama, Rachel crying for her sons, refusing to be comforted. They are thought low and demeaned by so many of their contemporaries, by the great masses of the nation, for whose hope they laid down their lives. How high they truly are, among the heights of the holy and the pure, shining like the glowing of the sky. Together with the echo of the voice resounding with love of Torah and its deeds among Israel, “'Happy is he who comes here possessed of learning,” but we also hear, that the martyrs of Lod “occupy an eminence which nobody else can attain.'"[16]
Maharal expands on the inconceivable level of one who lays down his life to sanctify the name of God:
Of this they said, in Pesachim (50a), “Happy is he who comes here possessed of learning, and I further heard it said that harugei malkhut occupy an eminence which nobody else can attain.” It concludes that it is speaking of the martyrs of Lod. Now, what do these two things have to do with each other? Indeed, they are connected. Harugei malkhut give up their lives in order to sanctify God’s name, and this makes a person totally separate from the physical world, until he gives himself over to death, to be removed from the world for the sake of the holiness of His great name. Therefore, they “occupy an eminence which nobody else can attain” because no one can attach himself to this level, which is so far removed from those people who incline toward this world while they live in it. Similarly, “he who comes here possessed of learning” is a master of Torah, which is itself discrete and intellectual in its very essence. However, if one has no learning, his soul is not intellectual and separate; rather, it has associations and connections to the body, when the Torah is not with it. This is the comparison between the two issues; understand it.[17]
- R. Yonatan Eybeschütz writes of the holiness of those who sanctify God’s name in a particularly impressive way:
This is the meaning of the analogy (Bereishit Rabba 3:4) of the creation of light, that it was created by God when He garbed Himself. It means to tell us something about the righteous, particularly those killed in order to sanctify God’s great name, who are essentially and wholly righteous, with harugei malkhut above them all — after all, we say (Bava Batra 10b) about harugei malkhut that they “occupy an eminence which nobody else can attain.” Therefore, it is said concerning “And there was light” that every time it says “And there was,” it alludes to distress — in this case, the distress that they were killed to sanctify God’s name. They are woven into God’s purple cloak, [18] upon which He gazes in order to shine light. This, then, is what they mean: God wrapped Himself in the garment and saw the righteous woven in there, and from them, by them, light shone forth… The same is true of the thirteen measures of mercy that God arouses, by way of the righteous, particularly those killed in order to sanctify His exalted name. They arouse love, because they die with love of God, and they fulfill, “And you shall love Lord your God with… all your soul.” This is the numerical value of thirteen, equivalent to the letters of “love” [ahava – 1+5+2+5] and “One” [ehad – 1+8+4], and they arouse the Supreme Love, that of the thirteen attributes of mercy. With this in mind, the Sages said (Rosh Hashana 17b) that the Holy One revealed these thirteen measures of mercy to Moshe when He wrapped Himself like a cantor, and this was with his purple cloak into which were woven the likenesses of martyrs and righteous. Had He looked at it at the time of the Destruction, the Temple would never have been destroyed, and therefore it says (Eicha 2:17): “He executed His proclamation” — i.e., He rent his purple cloak — “which He had commanded in days of old,” etc.
From there, light shone forth, and at the Destruction, He rent it. [19]
In the future, God will settle the score with enemies of his people, those who took the lives of His sons — the sons who died sanctifying His name:
Rabbi Yochanan said: Woe to the idolaters who have no rectification for the verse says (Yeshayahu. 60:17), “In place of bronze I will bring gold, and in place of iron I will bring silver….” But, what can be brought in place of Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues? About these the verse says (Yoel 4:21), “I will not cleanse them of their blood.” [20]
On Yom Ha-zikaron, we bind ourselves to the fallen, recognizing them for the kindness they bestowed upon the community. Their personal sacrifice is an important element in the existential struggle for Israel and its independence. On this day, we mention the unique position they have earned by laying their lives down. Together, we feel the plain of loss, as we lovingly embrace the bereaved families. All of these allow us to relate to our independence in an appropriate manner. On this day, we raise the following prayer[21]:
With hope for consolation, that the future heroes of our resurrection will live good, long lives — that there will never again be loss and heartbreak in our borders. Together will all the nation which awaits salvation, we shall always responds: “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.”
Rejoice, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will take vengeance on his enemies and make atonement for his land and people[22].קום אחר פוסק השולחן ערוך שאף אומרים עליו קדיש
[23]:
[1] Midrash Tehillim, ch. 20.
[2] Sanhedrin 4:5.In this context, we may note the words of Maharal in Tiferet Yisrael, ch. 3, on one who dies before his time, not allowing him to realize all of his potential:
Do not err in these matters, thinking that completeness is impossible for someone who cannot realize his potential because he has passed away before he might realize his potential; we do not deny the World to Come to him at all, if he has prepared himself for completion. His death is beyond his control, so that he could not realize his complete potential. Indeed, the Sages have said (Berakhot 6) that one who plans to perform a mitzva but is unable to do so due to events beyond his control is rewarded as if he has fulfilled the mitzva. This is because the future reward is for the soul, and when one is subject to forces beyond his control, this is not a deficiency of soul but a deficiency of body, and therefore the soul receives the reward as if it fulfilled the mitzva. One is liable only if one fails to do so willfully, intentionally, consciously, for this is a reflection of the soul; this is one who had the possibility to realize his complete potential but did not.
[3] Orhot Tzaddikim p. 119.
[4] Midrash Tanchuma, Vaychi, ch. 3.
[5] Rashi on Bereishit 47:29.Malbim on Mishlei explains the meaning of unrequited kindness (20:6):
“Hesed” (kindness) denotes what is done not out of a sense of obligation or promise, but rather generosity of spirit, while “emuna”(trust) denotes that which is done out of a sense of obligation or promise. One who observes the former should certainly observe the latter a fortiori, for if one volunteers, all the more so one should do what is binding and obligatory. However, in the nature of people, it appears that the opposite is the case: few people are trustworthy. Most do not do what is binding, easily cheating, defrauding and stealing the property of others! However, when one comes to doing kindness, many are available, and this is because they do not do good altruistically, but rather for praise and glory. They know that kindness is more highly regarded, for then they will proclaim his kind deeds. This is what the verse means by saying: “Most men will declare every one his own kindness” — many people will perform kindness, so that each and every person may announce and publicize his kind act. “But a trustworthy man who shall find?” — because there is no glory and honor in this. It also indicates that it is difficult to find a trustworthy man who will perform true kindness, kindness done in private, without great publicity and acclaim, for all acts have their roots in love of honor and recompense.
[6] Rambam, Sefer Ha-mitzvot, Positive commandment no. 8.
[7] Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings and Wars 7:15.
[8] Pesahim 50a; see also the parallel passage in Ta’anit 18b, and Rashi ad loc.
[9] Rashi, Pesahim 50a. Compare this to Rashi comments on Bava Batra 10b: “‘The martyrs of Lod’ — Lulianus and Pappas were brothers executed by the evil Tinaeus Rufus in Laodicea, as we say in Ta’anit (18); he had decreed the destruction of Israel because they were suspected in the murder of a princess. These brothers arose and said: ‘Why are you going on about Israel? We are the ones who killed her!’”
[10] See Hiddushei Ha-Ran on Pesahim 50a, where he explains that they did not save the community; rather, they gave up their lives to defy a persecutory decree, akin to the shoe-straps of Sanhedrin 74b, an ostensibly trivial custom for which a Jew must be willing to die in a time of persecution: “‘These are the martyrs of Lod’ — in aggadic sources, it is mentioned that they did not want to drink from vessels of colored glass, and it was a time of persecution and it was like shoe-straps; but Rashi does not explain it in this manner.”
The same is found in Yerushalmi Shevi’it 4:2: “If a non-Jew demands that a Jew violate any of the commandments of the Torah… he should violate it and not be killed. However, this only applies when no one else is present. In public, on the other hand, he must not obey him, even for a minor mitzva. Thus it was with Lulianus and Papus his brother, who were given water in colored glass vessel, and they refused to accept it.” Penei Moshe explains that the brothers refused to drink from the glasses because they were decorated with idolatrous illustrations.
[11] In the Laws of the Fundamentals of the Torah (5:4), Rambam states:
These are those put to death by the crown, above whom there is no higher level. Concerning them, Scripture (Tehillim 44:23) states: "For Your sake, we have been slain all day, we are viewed as sheep for the slaughter," and (Tehillim 50:5): "Gather unto Me, My pious ones, those who have made a covenant with Me by slaughter."
[12] According to Sanhedrin 47a-b, the verse (Tehillim 79:2) “They have given your servants’ carcass as food for the bird of the heavens” is applied to them.
[13] Shulhan Arukh YD 340:5; Hagahot Asheri Moed Katan (§38): “If one is killed by a non-Jew out of wickedness, he has achieved atonement, and he must be mourned.”
[14] Shulhan Arukh YD 376 and Shakh, Taz, and Ba’er Heitev, ad loc.: “This is specifically if he is killed, not if he passes away in his sleep
".
[15] Responsa Hatam Sofer YD, §433.
[16] R. Kook, “Al Bamoteinu Chalalim.” This was published after it was delivered as a eulogy for two young men killed in the Galilee by local Arabs in the year 1911. Because of its sharp language, A. Z. Rabinowitz recommended that R. Kook not publish this essay. Indeed, it was only published after the latter’s death, in Sinai 17, 5705. It was included in Maamarei Ha-Re’aya I, p. 93.
[17] Derashot Ha-Maharal, “Sermon on the Torah.”
[18] I saw that R. Eliyahu quotes this in the context of the greatness of the fallen in his commentary Ohalei Yaakov (46b) on the penitential poetry of Yom Kippur, “Glorious and enlightened… suppressing sins and dressing in righteousness.” This is what he writes:
There is a special garb, the purple cloak, on which all of those put to death by the crown and all those who laid down their lives to sanctify God’s name are drawn. Should the Accuser come to indict Israel for their sins, the Holy One gazes upon this purple cloak, then quashes and suppresses all of the sins. By what right does He engage in ‘suppressing sins’? Because He is ‘dressing in righteousness’ — this garb on which all of the martyrs are drawn.”
[19] Ya’arot Devash, Part II, Sermon 10.See Shela, Vol. II, ch. 5, where he deals with the prayer service and Torah reading. He includes a text to be recited by “one who gives himself over to death for the sake of the holiness of the name,” cited from “the notes of one of the punctilious who cleave to God”: You are Holy and Your name is holy, and holy ones from the holy of Israel have sanctified and will sanctify Your name, to suffer stoning, burning, execution and strangulation, along with all other cruel and bitter tortures, for the sake of the holiness of Your name and for the sake of the salvation of the people of Israel.
[20] Rosh Hashana 23a.
[21] HaRav Kook, “Al Bamoteinu Chalalim”, Maamarei Ha-Raya, vol. I, p. 93
[22] Devarim 32:43