It’s important to appreciate that Israel’s current war with Iran has both geopolitical and theological implications.
Despite the best efforts of Western governments, the global media, and even Israel’s military establishment to paint this war exclusively in military and geopolitical terms, it is abundantly clear that the tension between Iran’s devotion to Shia Islam and Israel’s role as the national manifestation of HaShem’s will is a central driving force in what could be the ultimate showdown between these two regional actors.
The arguments against such an analysis are abundant.
Some point to Islam’s reverence for Hebrew prophets like Avraham and Moshe as a clear indication that we both worship the same Divine Creator, and therefore argue that this cannot be considered a religious war.
In truth, there is a disagreement amongst our sages as to whether Allah should be considered an Arabic name for the G-d of Israel or a completely separate deity. In this debate, the strongest argument against seeing Allah and HaShem as the same Creator is the fact that Muslims generally reject Israel’s central role in the Divine plan.
Even those who accept that there is a genuine spiritual divide between Israel and Islamic societies point to Israel’s largely westernized leadership to argue that Iran doesn’t view Israel as representing a rival deity – or rival understanding of the same deity – but rather as a regional appendage of the imperialist West, importing decadent foreign values and cultural norms into the region.
According to this view, one could claim that this current round of violence, initiated by Israel’s attack on Iranian territory, is more geopolitical and less theological than Hamas’s “Al Aqsa Flood” attacks on Simḥat Torah and the subsequent rocket attacks launched by Hezbollah and Ansar Allah (the Houthis).
Others, following a more Marxist line of thought, view Israel as a settler-colony aligned with the United States and largely relate to the religious rhetoric on both sides as simply a tool used by political leaders to enlist mass support for sending the weakest classes of both societies to kill each other.
But all of these approaches fail to understand something central to how the children of Israel have historically understood ourselves – a perspective that we actually see animating our entire history.
Israel is a manifestation of the Divine will in this world.
Our ancestors understood the international community of the ancient world as a collection of primordial national identities. While individuals live their lives according to decisions reached through their free will, our sages teach that national collectives have far less free choice because the Divine hand acts through them in history.
The people of Israel, in particular, is the national representative of the Creator in this world.
HaRav Avraham Yitzḥak HaKohen Kook uses the term “Segula” to refer to Israel’s inner Divine essence that precedes the individuals that comprise it – the Divine light planted deep within the collective Israelite soul and revealed in human history through the Jewish people. According to HaRav Kook, the Segula often overrides the revealed surface-level beliefs of the individual Jews that comprise the nation’s component parts.
This was most clearly displayed through the Zionist movement, where Jews disconnected from their true identity and ancient traditions abandoned their homes and families in the Diaspora to build a Hebrew society in the land of their forefathers.
In the Six Day War, this Segula expressed itself through the liberation of Jerusalem, despite the fearful objections of many Israeli decision makers. And in our current war as well, no matter what our political and military leaders might claim, they are fighting a holy war.
This was most evident when Israel’s leadership chose to initiate the campaign last Friday morning, the sixth day of the week of Parshat B’haalotkha. The sixth section of that Torah portion, corresponding to the sixth day of the week, opens with the verse, “And when the Ark would set forth, Moshe would say, ‘Rise up, HaShem, and let your enemies be scattered! And let those who hate you flee before you!’”
Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi explains the use of the Creator’s Name here when seemingly referring to the Ark is an expression of the Divine will that expresses itself in concentrated form as it accompanies Israel on their march to Eretz Yisrael.
Rashi further explains the the apparent “enemies” and “haters” of HaShem are actually the enemies of Israel, who in their enmity for HaShem’s nation – that manifests His will in our world – display their disdain for the Divine trajectory of history.
By opening the campaign on the day that corresponds to this reading, our leaders subconsciously expressed that this war with Iran is one of Biblical proportions, pitting the G-d of Israel against Allah in a duel of cosmic proportions.
In addition to Israel being the national representative of the Creator in this world, our military functions as His Divine sword.
For this reason, any call for the United States to enter into this war in order to deal a conclusive defeat to the Iranians distances us from achieving the victory that really matters.
While such a win may set back the Iranian nuclear program for a few years and buy a short window of quiet, it will prove to the more theologically minded Iranian leadership that Israel’s G-d is insufficiently powerful to defeat Allah by Himself.
Considering the Christian theological underpinnings of the United States, it would further demonstrate that without the idolatrous addition of American power, Israel and its G-d are not One, undermining our eternal declaration, “Hear Israel, HaShem is our G-d, HaShem is One.”
We need to recognize that when we pursue this war, it is not just “our strength and the might of our hands” fighting the Iranians, but as Rabbeinu Nisim Girondi teaches, it is HaShem’s will manifesting through our national history that gives us strength to defeat our enemies, who are in truth the enemies of the Divine plan.
Only then can we truly fight HaShem’s wars, and demonstrate HaShem’s greatness to all of humanity, bringing the world closer to its ultimate redemption and to a lasting universal peace.
