Can we win?

Rabbi Ramon Widmonte

Rabbi of Mizrachi South Africa and Dean of the Academy

For centuries, our question was framed from beneath the cruel boot of the anti-Semite, the ghetto and eventually the camp: Can Jews escape? Will there be a future for us as free people? When will we return home? And ultimately, can we win this cruel battle of destinies?

But now our query comes from a place of privilege and power. Over the past six weeks, there has been an earnest attempt to return us to the periods when Jewish lives were treated as expendable. But this time round (and indeed since 1948) we have been blessed with the ability to disabuse many of these notions and protect Jewish life.

Nevertheless, despite our best efforts to out-wit and out-moral a pernicious, cynical enemy, we are still targets of the crudest accusations. And the same question seems to persist: Can we win this cruel battle of destinies?

It seems that either way, the question remains. Whether we are trampled underfoot or standing proudly, there is no simple, human-only answer.

For those who believe that Torah is passé and anachronistic, they might want to look in our parsha which seems to have been tailor-made for this week:

Perhaps you’ll wonder in your heart, “These nations are more numerous than we are – how can we win?”

[Moses answers]: Do not fear them! Remember what Hashem did to Pharoah and Egypt – the great tests which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders… also Hashem will send swarms of wasps amongst them…

The first part resonates clearly but the second part is bizarre! When you feel the odds are stacked against you, don’t worry because G-d has some really scary bees?

However, it seems to me that the Torah’s suggestion is a little more subtle.

Sometimes even the Jewish people are swept away by the greatest hubris of all: the belief that it is human beings alone who can and should fix the problems of the world with blunt human means.

The Torah’s reminder here is clear: You cannot win, on your own. But with G-d (not G-d alone, but with G-d), you can.

More than this is the Torah’s subtle and mocking presentation of how G-d will help – with bees.

Yes, you will need to defend yourselves, yes you will need to invest in a hi-tech multi-million dollar Iron Dome, but Hashem can win with an insect and even more impressively, He can win without loss of life. The commentator, Seforno, writes that if the Jews had acted correctly upon their first entrance into the Land of Israel, there would have been no life lost at all – no Jews or non-Jews.

Who knows what today’s bees are? Only Hashem does. Perhaps it is the buzz of the social networks, or the busy hum of computers.

But what is surerer than sure is that with Hashem we should be able to respond with Obama-esque pride and assurance: Yes we can, together, us and Hashem, and the bees.