 Back to Think Tech, this is Global Connections, and we're talking about, of course, the attack on Israel and the question before the House, the question before Rabbi Itchel Krasynchansky, who is the Rabbi of Chabad here in Hawaii, is how do religious Jews feel about the attack? And how does that affect Jews around the world Rabbi Krasynchansky is connected with Jews around the world. Welcome to the show, Itchel. Thank you, Jay, for inviting me on the show. And it's unfortunate that it's a tragedy like this that has us talking. In answer to the title of the show, how do religious Jews, how are they reacting to the war, to the tragedy of the massacre of the innocent, hundreds and hundreds of innocent Jews who were killed in the most horrific way as the whole world has seen in the last couple of days. If the title is meant to ask theologically, how do we understand it theologically? How is it possible and how has God allowed for something like this to happen? So if that's the question, then if the question is why there are no answers, if the question is, what do we, whoa, how do we approach this? Or how do we deal with this? Then there are a lot of discussion that we can have. Rather than discuss it from the books, how it's explained in the books in the Torah, I'd rather refer to what's happening around the world, specifically the Jewish world that I know and all those who love Israel and the Jewish people. We're seeing something very, very amazing. As dark and as evil as Hamas is and their acts and actions, killings, to that extent on the very opposite of the spectrum, we're seeing unbelievable outpouring of light and love and unity amongst the Jewish people in Israel, all around the world. And I can tell you stories, you know, people are sending us clips all the time. There was a man standing in JFK Airport in John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. He went over to the Al Al counter and there was a whole bunch of mainly young people who were trying to get onto the flight because they got the call to come back to serve. And he insisted on paying their tickets. He ended up buying 250 tickets for all of them there. He didn't allow himself to be photographed. He didn't want all anonymous. This is, you know, you're doing, he said to them, you're doing the real work. I'm just doing what I need to do. You know, I saw a clip of a soldier on the front who via Zoom watched his son having a brisk circumcision. A bride and groom who immediately after the hope which is the religious ceremony of the wedding, left, the groom left, put on his soldier's uniform and drove away to fight. And he was very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very terrified. Realtors are putting up ads all over the place in Israel, begging anyone from the South who lost their home and homes have been bombed and everything to please come to the apartments that they have so they can live there, move in there for free. Restaurants that are not even kosher restaurants are shutting down and turning their kitchens kosher can have food, kosher food. I mean, these things are happening and the most heartbreaking thing is young people or many hundreds and hundreds of people are working overnight digging graves so that those who have murdered should have proper burial. What's happening is it's hard to wrap our minds around such hatred and such evil. Who would have believed that 70, 80 years after the Holocaust that we were facing this kind of grums? We grew up, at least I grew up thinking that this was history. This was a dark period of our history but we're living now in a civilized world, living in a free world and for this to happen on the scale that it happened just boggles the mind. It boggles the mind. And something interesting, this is maybe a little of a on a religious observation. The last war that took so many lives in Israel broke out on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. This massacre took place on Simhastor. The most joyous year, also a very holy day in the Jewish calendar. This wasn't, this Hamas, this evil is at war with everything that Judaism teaches us and what Judaism stands for. The Jewish people suffered perhaps more than any other people throughout our long history with massacres and pogroms and anti-Semitism running throughout our long history. But yet we are a people that celebrates life, that cherishes life, that does everything to bring life and light and love into the world. The contrast is so great between the hatred, it's a hatred that's hard to understand because normal people do things that help them along the way. These animals, they knew the response that would come from Israel and from the Israeli army. They knew that they're gonna bring suffering upon themselves and the whole population that they don't really care about, right? But their hatred is so, I can't even understand it, so I cannot explain it, that they're ready to peril their own lives only to be able to murder and to kill Jews. It's mind-blowing, totally mind-blowing. I, you know, there's, we have a long history, like I said, of anti-Semitism and Jewish people have suffered and lost a lot but have always come out, have always come out strong and rebuilt and even stronger. There's a principle in Jewish mysticism that says that every step back, every descent is for the purpose of a higher ascent. It brings, it will bring out something stronger and deeper within us. It doesn't explain, it doesn't explain the why but it gives us the directives, the direction that we need to actually remind ourselves of who we are and what we're all about. Yes, Israel, thank God, has a strong army but that's not the strength of the Jewish people and that's not the strength of Israel. It's really a spiritual strength. It's a God-graced strength that in the face of all of this, in the face of, by the way, there was a clip that happened, this is amazing, the Hamas terrorists, they broke into this woman's house. She was a grandmother, an elderly lady and they were gonna take her hostage but they were just lounging around in her apartment. So she said to them, you kids look like you're hungry, you have to eat something. And she went to make them a meal and that's what they did. They were eating and they were having a good time and joking, whatever, until the door was banged down with the Israeli soldiers came in and they did what they had to do and saved this woman. We're not capable of comprehending such evil. It's just very alien, it's a very, very alien but I think that this time it has to be different. It has to be different on many fronts. It has to be different for all people who embrace life to be able to clearly see and to clearly speak out to this kind of raw evil. There's something very interesting in the Torah. The Torah in general is all about peace. My mononay says that God gave the Torah to the Jewish people to bring peace in the world. So many of the commandments are all about bringing peace and kindness in the ways of Torah kindness. But there is one amendment in the Torah which is puzzling. And that is there was a nation called the Amalekites in Hebrew and this nation ambushed the Jewish people when they left Egypt, ancient Egypt, after we were freed by the great miracles that God brought about through Moses. After the Jewish people left Egypt, they went to desert this nation called Amalek, Amalek, A-M-E-L-A-K, ambushed the Jewish people and killed many, many Jewish people. And God said in the Torah that the Jewish people have a sacred obligation to fight the nation of Amalek and to annihilate Amalek, to annihilate them. And it seems out of character for the Torah to use such words and to give such a directive. There is a phenomena of raw evil, of absolute evil that cannot be turned around, that cannot be elevated, that cannot be refined, that has to be eliminated. And we saw that with the Nazis, with Hitler that that was absolute evil and it had to be destroyed, it had to be vanquished and we're seeing it, we're seeing that that's very same face of evil, rare, it's ugly head. And with God's help, Israel will do what it has to do to protect itself and protect its citizen and actually protect the world, rid the world of such kind of evil. You mentioned Israel, Rabbi, are you concerned for Israel? You know, I mean, I'm in the same generation you are and I've assumed that always that Israel was capable of protecting itself. Now that question is raised and Mass is trying to show us that Israel is not capable, not as capable as we thought. Are you concerned about the future of the state of Israel? And if so, how concerned are you? So the answer is, I'm absolutely have no stress of concern, no doubt that Israel will prevail, that Israel will do what it has to do to protect itself and will survive and continue to thrive. I say that because we have this experience, this long history of being beat up by forces of evil nations that were actually much stronger and much more, we were outnumbered, we're only a small nation, but we have the promise in the Torah and the promise of God that the Jewish people will prevail. And it's been true for the last close to 6,000 years as long as we've been around. So I have no doubts that that will happen. And I'm not even talking about now from studying and knowing how strong the Israeli army is, which thank God it is, I'm just talking to you as a Jew, it's not a matter of faith that I believe that we will survive. I just know it as a fact of life. It's been promised in the Torah, in the eternal book given to us by the eternal God that we, the eternal people will in fact be eternal and will overcome all the evil that we have to overcome. And really, it's interesting because you know the role of the Jewish people in the world and this is a quote from the prophets is to be a light unto the nations, meaning that we are the conduits of light. We received God's word on Mount Sinai and over the millennium, we have brought that message to the entire world. This, our civilization today is based on the values given to us in the Torah by God. This is who we are, right? Along the way, there's an expression in the Talmud that the sword and the book came down from heaven together, tethered together. You know, we are the people of the book but we have to lift up our swords in order to be able to overcome those who want to, you know, it says that you really wanna know who you are. Don't talk to your friends. Listen to what your enemies say and you'll get a glimpse of how they see you. If you look into my count from Hitler, Hitler's hatred to the Jews was because he believed that the Jews wrote down civilization with this whole idea of right and wrong and conscience, conscious. You know, he wanted to rid the world from this light that interfered with his, you know, with his dark being. That's who we are. We are messengers of light. We are messengers of light, you know, in concrete ways and in little ways and big ways. Every day when we wake up in the morning and thank God for giving us another day of life and when we smile to whoever we encounter and we do good, we try to do good. We try to be forces of good. That's how we bring light into the world and Israel has been doing that as a nation and all Jews around the world and all godly people around the world and good people around the world. This is our understanding of this gift of life that God has given us. This whole evil and hatred and anti-Semitism and anti, it's not even only anti-Semitism, it's just pure hatred. It's something that is very alien to us. You know, the press in my view has not covered this very well. We focus more on the people who have been wounded in Gaza than the people who have been murdered and slaughtered and beheaded and raped and marched and naked and kidnapped. The press hasn't covered that nearly as much and this is similar to other wars with Gaza where they attacked Israel. And I am very concerned that behind that failure, there is a dark strain in the media. Therefore, that's why I wanna talk to you about these things and examine what is going on with the two sides of this issue. And I totally agree that there's no justification possible for what Hamas has done, none. And think about it as hard as you want, take their side if you wish, but there's no justification. However, I notice articles in the newspaper about groups on college campuses in this country, about groups that support the Palestinian cause and therefore Hamas, about groups who are protesting and counter-protesting against those who would stand with Israel. And it is to me, absolutely maddening to see them there because I can't imagine what drives them to protest in favor of obvious murderers. But I wonder what you think about that and what you would say to them, Rabbi, because they're out there and they're protesting against Israel and in favor of the savagery? That's a very, very important question. The way I see it is, the way I understand it is that all of life or all of civilization is this age-old battle between good and evil, dark, light and darkness. And we are soldiers of light, every single one of us. You asked before how Jewish people are reacting to this, but I think that every person needs to think about mobilizing themselves in this great fight, in this great war. The soldiers in Israel are mobilized in their divisions, air, land, sea, medics, whatever. But each and every one of us, each and every person who has a conscience, who has a feeling for an understanding of right, wrong, and goodness, kindness as opposed to evil, this is a wake-up call and this is, we need to be mobilized because it's a war that is still raging. This is just an outbreak of it, but the undercurrents of this is really the battle of life, which is that goodness should try on darkness and every person needs to really decide what is my life, in what direction is it pointing? What is the purpose or the meaning of my life? How am I living my life? And in a situation like this, there's no middle ground. You cannot stand in the middle and indifferent and uninvolved. You're either for a force for what's right or you're aiding and abetting the forces of evil. And this kind of upheaval, this kind of a massacre, this kind of a unprovoked war is really should almost like force upon us that each and every one of us has to ask this question to ourselves, am I a part of the force of goodness or am I just gonna turn my back in as long as it doesn't affect me, I don't care. Now, we the Jewish people from time immemorial have been in the words of the prophet, a nation that the world is alone. It's just like as if the world is indifferent to the plight of the Jewish people, to some degree, sometimes more, sometimes less. And it hasn't changed, hasn't changed over a thousand years. It's a very difficult role to play in a burden, but it's also the flip side of it is that there is blessing or something positive in this unity that manifests itself, especially in times like this, amongst the Jewish people. Someone sent a clip that I saw kosher supermarkets around the country that are nearly empty, the shelves are empty because people are buying everything they can and sending it to Israel. Yeah, solidarity. Exactly. Well, you know, I hope this is over soon, but you know, Netanyahu says it's gonna be a long war and those soldiers you talk about are they're completely courageous and they're willing to, they're willing to march into harm's way, they're willing to risk their lives to give their lives. And you know, to me, that's a message to all of us. We have to take every step we can to support them, like that guy who bought the 250 tickets. That's truly remarkable. But I think there will be calls for sacrifice going forward. It's not the end of this discussion. It's not the end of this war. And history has changed things. History has changed things for the Jewish people, for Israel, for the Middle East, and for the Palestinians and Hamas that would attack Israel. Do you agree with that? That we are in a different place now? For sure. I mean, things cannot go back to the way they were two weeks ago. There's been rumblings or they've been saying, I forget the expression where they say, pay close attention to your enemies, listen, take them for their worth. They've been saying this all along for years, that they wanna destroy the Zionist enemy and march them into the sea and stuff like that. And now that they had a chance, they planned it and they executed it, and we have to stop them in their tracks. We have to annihilate them. And yeah, when this kind of darkness presents itself, like I said, I believe it almost obligates us to look deep into ourselves and to see, you know, what are we made of, who we truly are, and how to combat this kind of evil. I mean, we're not even talking about the realities of people who lost their homes in Israel, and people, especially people living in the South, the homes have been bombed. I can't even imagine families having to deal with children or spouses or family members who have been taken hostage. You know, and all the horrible things that they're doing. I mean, I don't know how they sleep at night. They probably, they definitely don't. It's really, really horrific. And when we see this kind of insanity, these kids that are supporting, protesting on behalf of the Palestinians. I mean, the truth of the matter is that the greatest enemies of the Palestinians are the Palestinians themselves, Hamas itself, who puts this whole society, the whole country into harm's way. You know, where they embed their military, their rocket facilities, whatever it is, they embed them in homes and underground homes. They don't care about their people. I mean, it's just mind-boggling. It's hard for us to understand that kind of a, it's just... Well, we're only finding out now, a few days later, and we're gonna find out a lot more. We found out, for example, only today, how deep Iran's involvement was in the planning, the funding, the weaponization of this attack. And we'll find out more about what happened in Gaza, what happened with Hamas and what happened with other Palestinian groups that contributed and other countries that contributed. It's all gonna come out probably within, you know, a fairly short period of time. So I would like, I know you have photographs and I know you have a network of people in Israel that you're talking to. And I would like to explore those things going forward with you, Rabbi, where we're only starting our discussion to cover the subject. I'm very happy that you could join me today for this discussion. But I wanna repeat it and continue it and follow the news and what you are learning about what is happening inside of Israel. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Jay, for inviting me, like I said. I just wanna say one last thought that maybe we can explore further or discuss it further. That is Judaism teaches us that the Jewish people are one being. Just like a human body has many parts to it, but it's an organic whole and the health of a person's foot contributes to the health the overall health of the person. In the same way also, each and every individual member of the Jewish people is really intrinsically connected to all Jews. So therefore, the Rebbe would say, Rabbi Schneerson and the Rebbe spoke about it during the Yom Kippur War, that any mitzvah or any act of goodness that we do, every individual Jewish person does, actually strengthens the body of the Jewish people and gives might and strength. Not just abstract spiritual strength, but actually real, there's miracles. Maybe next time we can talk about and hearing about unbelievable miraculous things that have been happening and they can only point to a higher power that's looking out for us and will ensure that with God's help, we will ensure that we will overcome this dark period as well. Adar, Rabbi? Thank you. And Shalom, it means peace. Thank you. Thank you, Jay. Be well. Bye.