Tzipiyah.com

Reposted from last year since it is very relevant to me now that I am graduating Law School.

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” Mark Twain

I couldn’t find a better way of introducing this post than through a self-quote. I am currently in my second year of Law School in Mcgill. Yes, the great Law School of Mcgill. It truly is a great law school! Here in Montreal, some people are selling shirts where it is written in big “Harvard” and then, in smaller letters, “America’s Mcgill”. My attendance at one of the most prestigious schools in Canada in on its of its most highly regarded faculties has been mostly positive. I still stand by the fact I would have rather studied in Israel, at Hebrew U, but I do not have much criticism to give to Mcgill. Rather, what I am here to discuss today is a much wider problem, which I do not think is limited to Mcgill or Law School, but rather has spread throughout North America’s culture which also influences Israel.

When I was in high school, I used to be very ambitious. I even got a T-Shirt spray-painted with an Israeli flag in front and the words “Worn by Prime Minister Illouz” in the back. On my valedictorian speech in High School, when I started predicting what all my friends will be accomplishing in the future, I said of myself that in 2030, I would be elected Prime Minister of Israel. All of these things were done half jokingly, with a smile on my face. They were definitely not rooted in any type of Gaavah, I did not mean to imply that I deserved all these titles. Rather, they expressed a deep ambition to do something amazing with my life – to use my God given tools in order to accomplish something I care about.

Then, I went to college, and did well. I went to Yeshiva and to be honest, I’m not really sure if my time in yeshiva was originally good or bad for my ambitions. In yeshiva, in some ways, my ambitions were also temporarily limited. When I look back, I realize that in the long run, the time spent in yeshiva only enhanced my idealism and ambitions but, even in an idealistic yeshiva such as Yeshivat Hakotel, its hard to feed your ambition when your main challenge is to wake up on time for minyan and struggle with holy texts while sitting in your makom. Don’t get me wrong, I believe every Jew should experience a few years in yeshiva – many years for most - but I also now believe that during ones time in yeshiva it is essential for him to also learn about the depth of Jewish Ambition in this world, Jewish Idealism. Rav Kook writes on learning Jewish Thought (which is the basis of Jewish Idealism), that it is to Gemara like the brain is to the body. The brain takes a relatively small volume of space in the body. However, it is the most central part of the body. In order to be truly successful in yeshiva, one must understand that even the short amount of daily study of Jewish Thought is what makes the halachic study meaningful – It is the central part of Jewish learning.

This is where I get into Law School. They have an interesting saying here in Mcgill Law School: “90 % of first years in law school want to go into some form of Public Service. 90% of second years in law school want to become Corporate Lawyers”. Money is quite convincing, yes. When it comes time to apply to law firms and you can choose huge law first in New York with a starting salary of over 120 000$ (I never really checked but that’s what I heard), or an idealistic path where the starting salary is often 0$, the choice for many is quite clear. Trust me, I used to criticize people who stayed in Chutz Laaretz for money, I don’t anymore. I know they are wrong, but I cannot blame them for being sucked into the system with all this green being flashed to their eyes.

At one point in my life I had to make a decision. Am I going to live an ambitious life, with the constant threat of failure, or will I choose a stable and very comfortable life. Honestly, I would probably be so busy working in Law Firms I would not even have time to realize I’m not doing what I want. But my decision was the first option.

Some people think the most ambitious thing would be to have a very successful career. If that is your conviction, I am not arguing this. I could try arguing that some values transcend a successful career but this is not the topic of this post. Rather, I am talking of my own ambition, and the ambition of the vast majority of people who do not accomplish their ambitions when choosing a successful career. My incredible ambitions of moving to Israel, helping rebuild the holy land after 2000 years of exile, helping God’s throne be slowly rebuilt through legal, political, religious means. To me, these ambitions transcend a successful career as a lawyer. This is why I say that choosing law would have been choosing a less ambitious part.

I think we all forget too easily that we have the right to have ambition. We all hesitate too much before saying what we truly want to accomplish in life. Don’t get me wrong, someone’s ambition can truly be to become the best possible lawyer. This is a great ambition! However, in general, most of us are to shy to actually express what we truly want to accomplish.

What would the world be if Martin Luther King Jr. would have been too shy to become a civil rights activist? What would the world be if all those great Rabbis would not have followed their ambitions? What would the world be if Gandhi would have simply been a corporate Lawyer in England? How would the state of Israel been declared if Ben Gurion decided to stay an engeneer in Poland or if Herzl was simply a regular, successful Journalist in France? How much light would have been lost in this world?

When speaking to those who seem to always know better what is best for me than myself, I often want to scream at them for their attempt at extinguishing my passion. I know they mean to do well, they would not want me to risk too much and then loose it all. But if I am not Dan Illouz, who will?
Don’t you realize that the Gandhi’s and Martin Luther Kings of our generations are going to be among those of us who will choose conviction over convenience!

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my ambitions” Dan Illouz
I have never let the world decide what I must make of my own, and only, life.
The issues discussed in this post are not only true for those of us in Law School. It includes decisions each and every one of us need to make at some point of our life. Will we live a life of convenience, or will be life a life of passion and fulfillment. Some have the luxury of living both, but I think everyone of us needs to decide at some point what is the more important value – convenience or conviction. It’s really up to each of us.

On university campuses, in the media, and in the general population, there is an warped undertone, even amongst some who support Israel’s right to defend itself, that Israel still has a lot to apologize for, mainly because of the wide gap in numbers of civilian deaths from each of the sides in the conflict.

However, here is a list of 5 things which Israel should never apologize for, all of them being root causes for the unequal number of civilians killed on each side of the conflict:

Israel should never apologize for building bomb shelters for its citizens, while its enemies use their money on weapons to attack Israel. Yes, it is thanks to those bomb shelters that the number of Israeli deaths has been so low.

Israel should never apologize for creating a “Red Color” warning system to warn its citizens of incoming rocket attacks so they can hide, in 15 seconds,  in the closest bomb shelters, whiles its enemies often force their own citizens to stay in areas which Israel warned it would bomb.  Yes, it is thanks to this warning system that the number of Israeli deaths has been so low.

Israel should never apologize for doing its outmost to protect its civilians, whiles its enemies use their very own civilians as human shields.  Yes, it is thanks to this willingness to put its civilians out of harms way that the number of Israeli deaths has been so low.

Israel should never apologize for discharging its most basic moral obligation of protecting its own citizens by defending itself militarily, even as it is trying to spare as many civilians on the other side as humanly possible, while its enemies specifically target civilians for death.  Yes, it is thanks to this willingness to protect its citizens that the number of Israeli deaths has been so low.

Israel should never apologize for holding an ideology which values life, whiles its enemies in Hamas hold an ideology which encourages death and martyrdom.  Yes, it is thanks to this life-loving ideology that the number of Israeli deaths has been so low.

From Jpost (Please read the whole article):

“AFTER WATCHING the rosh yeshiva of the high school being interviewed about their son, the Netanels go into their house. I am left standing outside alone with Yonatan’s father, Rabbi Amos, and what am I going to say? Anything I can think of is just going to demean the worth of their beautiful child. But thank God the tears come and I break down and he holds me. So instead of me comforting him, he comforts me.

“God does not give us trials we cannot withstand. The ways of the Redemption are hidden from us, but it’s still the Redemption.”

Some call them simpletons, but those who know them can only thank God that people like these exist in our world. “

http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3646534,00.html

For those who don’t speak Hebrew well, my summary:

In most countries, in a time of war which forces a population to be displaced, you get a refugee problem.

In Israel, when rockets force the southern population to be displaced, you get an overflow of hospitality from the rest of the country.

Truly inspiring.‎

For 2000 years, during our horrible exile, whenever a Jew was insulted, beaten or tortured, all he could do was put down his head in shame. For 2000 years, if a Jew ever tried to defend himself, he would be confronted to a system which excluded any possible defense for him and would get punished of any attempted to defend himself. He was forced to “turn the other cheek”, even when that meant letting his relatives be maimed, raped, tortured or killed.

100 years ago, we said: “No More”. 100 years ago, we decided that we will start a movement that will bring back national pride to the Jewish people. We decided we will not be the punching bags of humanity. We decided that, for the first time in 2000 years, “Jewish blood will not be cheap anymore”. No, this was not a statement of blind racism speaking about a different DNA makeup. It was a statement which strove to bring back justice to a world which has unjustly cheapened the blood of Jews for over 2000 years. We were saying: “You will not be able to kill us without expecting a strong response from us! You will not be able to insult us without expecting us to defend our pride! You will not be able to shoot rockets at us without expecting us to exercise our right to self defense!”

Over the past few years, rockets have been constantly fired on the southern cities of Israel. The only thing these rockets could have been a response to, when they started, was the unimaginable concessions the Israeli government gave to the Palestinians by undertaking the expulsion of its own citizens from the Gaza Strip and giving away full control to the Palestinians. Not only were those rocket attacks constant and terrifying, they were joined together with other types of attacks, including, over 917 days ago, the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit who is still being held captive by Hamas. Over the past few years, 10 046 missiles fell on southern Israel. Yes, I did not mistakenly add a zero! 10 046 missiles!!

And what did we do?

In our constant, extreme, characteristic, blinding and sometimes problematic hope for peace, we did not do anything. We had a few minor operations here and there, in which we tried shooting at the launchers of the Kassam rockets, but those were never successful because by the time we could respond, the launchers of the rockets were already gone from the scene of the launch.

So, instead of responding, we kept on asking for calm. We kept on requesting a ceasefire. One day, as the limit to our unexplainable patience was obviously coming closer, and as Hamas was obviously in a need for a time of calm in order to renew its arsenal and better attack us in the future, we agreed to a ceasefire. Yes, everyone knew that a ceasefire would be detrimental to Israel because everyone knew that while we would try to use this time to plant the seeds of peace, Hamas would use it to regroup in order to better attack. Still, what can you do - we continued to hope!

After the ceasefire expired, Hamas had effectively regrouped. They refused to extend the ceasefire and started, once again, shooting rockets at Israel. Yes, the ceasefire actually gave them more strength! Some of their rockets could now hit Ashdod – one of the bigger cities of Israel!

Finally, after months – no, years!- of staying back, Israel decided it was time to defend itself. Over the weekend, Israel has started an operation in the Gaza strip. However, even after those years of attacks which make this response more than justified, there is a sense of shock at the numbers coming out of Gaza. Over 280 dead. Wow! 280 human beings were killed. For people who hate death, this is, honestly, a horrible tragedy. So, how are we to react to that?

In today’s world, there is an underlying pressure for Jews, and Zionists, to put their heads down in shame after seeing these numbers. Yes, even the strong Zionists are afraid to switch their facebook status in support of the Gaza operation. Yes, even the strong Zionists are afraid to scream their support for the State of Israel in such a time of bloodshed and conflict.

The Torah does tell us that we cannot, we are forbidden, to rejoice in our enemies’ suffering. So, we should not rejoice in their death. However, let’s make no mistake: I am not, in the slightest way, ashamed of the State of Israel. I am proud of the State of Israel for finally standing up and defending it’s citizens. Yes, every single death is a tragedy – a HUGE tragedy. I cannot express how annoyed I am that people need to die. However, the most basic moral duty of a government is to ensure it’s citizen’s safety. Finally, after many years of holding back, the State of Israel has regained its moral standing by once again ensuring the safety of its citizens. We should not rejoice in our enemy’s suffering or death but we should rejoice that the State of Israel is finally defending its citizens and that the Israelis living in the south will, hopefully, finally be able to start living a normal life again!

Let us not be blinded by the reports which have gone out in the past few days. The Israeli attacks are not an aggression – they are a legitimate response in self defense.

They are not in response to a few rocket attacks which came out in the past few days – they are in response to 10 046 missiles which have been launched on Israel in the past few years.

They are not un-proportional: Can someone tell me what the proportional response to 10 046 rockets would be? Can someone tell me what the proportional response is to years of living in fear where every few hours you must go hide under a desk because there is an alarm going off signaling an incoming rocket? Please! Let me know! What would be more moral than ensuring that the rocket attacks end!

The Israeli attacks are not targeting civilians but rather the Hamas infrastructure. While 100% of the rockets fired by Hamas have been targeting civilians, out of the 280 people who have been killed in Gaza in this past weekend, only 15 were confirmed to be civilians. Trust me, I know that 15 civilian deaths is a tragic number. It is huge. However, let us not forget to put things into perspective. Let us not forget that, as we see numbers of dead climbing in the news media, we can also rest assured that Israel is doing its best to ensure the safety of civilians while Hamas is doing its best to ensure the death of civilians.

Yes, I am shocked at the number of deaths in Gaza. Yes, I am appalled at that number. Yes, I mourn those who died innocent. Yes, I mourn the fact that those who deserved to die did not decide to live a better, more productive, more peace loving, life. However, I put the blame of every single one of those deaths on one organization – Hamas. If legitimate self defense causes death, the responsibility of that death must rest on the shoulders of the original attacker. I am angry at the number of deaths but I know, having studied the situation, that my anger must be direct towards Hamas and the other terrorist organizations who have constantly attacked the peace loving Israel.

As the attacks continue, I will not bow down my head in shame. I will raise my head up high in pride for a country who is not afraid to defend its citizens, after having tried for the longest amount of time a peaceful route. I will raise my head up high in pride for a country who is targeting the infrastructure of terrorist organizations in order to ensure the rocket attacks on Israel will finally stop. I will raise my head up high and say: “Thank You Israel, I support you!”

It is precisely in this time where moral relativism is pushing Jews to go in hiding, and hide their support for Israeli actions in shame, that we must stand up and scream with pride that we support Israel. We must stand up, and break the moral relativism, to show that there is clearly only one moral actor in this conflict between Israel and Hamas and that actor is Israel. I encourage all of you to express your support for Israel in any possible way – on blogs, on Facebook, on twitter, by email, by phone, etc…

May this conflict which we never wanted bring about the peace which we have always yearned for.