When Ezra Declined Foreign Protection and Risked Everything
Plus a call for help giving away seforim, and a flashback Holocaust Day interview
A relatively small group of Jews — 42,360, to be exact — answered the initial call to return to Eretz Yisrael and rebuild the Beis Hamikdash after the Babylonian exile. The majority of them were extremely elderly, survivors of the destruction and 70 years of exile. The new generation preferred life in exile.
To make matters worse, the foreign occupiers of the land did everything in their power to thwart the resettlement. They harassed the Jews, threatened them with violence, slandered them to the king as disloyal (in a letter written by one of the sons of Haman, no less), and even offered to “help” the Jews rebuild the Beis Hamikdash in order to sabotage them from within.
How things never change.
Ezra led a second wave of Jews returning from Bavel to Eretz Yisrael. Although they had the support of the Persian king, who ruled the land, the situation remained precarious. There was a real danger that enemies would ambush them during their journey.
Ezra describes the situation and his response in Sefer Ezra 8:21-23 (Judaica Press translation):
And I proclaimed there a fast by the river Ahava, to fast before our God, to beseech Him for a straight way for us and for our children and for all our belongings. For I was ashamed to request of the king an army and horsemen to aid us from enemies on the way, for we had said to the king, "The hand of our God is upon all who seek Him for good, and His power and His wrath are upon all who forsake Him." And we fasted and beseeched our God concerning this, and He accepted our prayer.
Ezra could have received a military escort from the king, essentially guaranteeing safe passage. However, he refused to request foreign support. After saying all the right things about Hashem and their faith in His protection, asking the king for military protection would have been shameful!
Instead, Ezra and his followers fasted (in conjunction with teshuva) and prayed to Hashem to protect them. While many commentaries speculate that he knew this prayer was answered through an unstated prophetic message, Rashi states that the acceptance of the prayer only became self-evident after the fact, when they concluded their journey in safety.
Not only did Ezra and his followers put their lives on the line, they arguably put the entire resettlement enterprise on the line. The situation in Eretz Yisrael was very tenuous, most Jews in the diaspora weren’t keen on returning, and they couldn’t afford a major setback. If enemies successfully attacked Ezra’s group, that might have been the end of it. Redemption itself was on the line!
No doubt the rabbis of today would insist that Ezra was obligated to request military protection. Hishtadlus! Pikuach nefesh! What’s the question?!
No doubt the frum kofrim who worship statistics instead of Hashem, who are lenient in so many ways, yet stringently risk-averse whenever the government orders them to cancel mitzvah-observance in the name of safety, would have decried Ezra’s “reckless”, unscientific, irrational behavior. They would have called him all sorts of names, labeled him a rodef, and called for the government to take action against him.
Unfortunately for them, Ezra’s lesson is immortalized as objective Torah truth. The frum kofrim who were unaware of this source, and don’t really care, can play their usual game and dismiss it without serious contemplation and introspection. They can split a hair and argue that Ezra’s situation was completely different, and it has no relevance today.
Of course, they would be unable to explain why this lesson is immortalized and when it would have practical relevance, because to them the Torah is a prop to be exploited when it suits them and explained away when it does not.
Upright Jews, conversely, will derive inspiration and practical guidance from Ezra’s example. Not all forms of hishtadlus are acceptable, even when one can argue that there is a plausible increase in danger by refraining from this hishtadlus. Not every statistical risk qualifies as pikuach nefesh, let alone a justification for anything goes.
Furthermore, those who not only grudgingly accept foreign military support, yet depend on it, celebrate it, claim it is synonymous with Hashem’s protection, and even delude themselves that foreign military support will bring the redemption, have no leg to stand on. They have distanced themselves from true faith in Hashem, and desecrate His name with their public statements.
Reliance on secular leaders and institutions, wicked people, Jews in name only, and foreign protection will not keep us safe, let alone bring the redemption; it is one of the main sins holding it back, and a constant desecration of Hashem’s name.
May we internalize the clear, consistent teachings of the Torah and do teshuva for this especially shameful sin.
There are many fascinating parallels between the early Bayis Sheni period and modern times. My sefer Go Up Like a Wall extrapolates many of the lessons waiting to be learned from Tanach and Chazal, in easy English. The book is available for a pittance on Amazon here, and the pdf is available for free download here.
Baruch Hashem, I have already distributed thousands of books free of charge, but I need your help to reach more people. (This request is proper hishtadlus.) If you are in Eretz Yisrael and would like to distribute copies of Go Up Like a Wall (especially if you can get them to Jews in Chutz La’aretz), please contact me at weissmans@protonmail.com. I will be happy to give you as many books as you can give away.
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Flashback from Frontline News:
Exclusive Holocaust Day interview with Rabbi Chananya Weissman: ‘Obligation to say the truth’
Read it here.
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