From the heart of Jerusalem: Beyond Entebbe: our mission

I remember it like it was yesterday. While millions of Americans celebrated their nation’s independence, we were all glued to our radios and television sets waiting for news of the fate of the Israeli hostages hijacked on an Air France jet and being held captive in Uganda.
The terrorists, who had already separated the Israeli hostages and those Jewish sounding names in a selection reminiscent of darker times, had announced they would start murdering hostages unless Israel started releasing terrorists. Technically, this was a French issue, as the Air France jet was French sovereign territory, but it was clear no one (save the brave Air France crew) was sending anyone into harm’s way for a planeload of Jews and Israelis; once again, the Jews were alone.
With their back up against the wall, and a disaster in the making, Israel dared to dream the impossible. Israeli commandos, flying 2000 kilometers over enemy territory, landed Hercules planes deep in the heart of Africa, taking over the Entebbe (Uganda) airport and freeing the hostages. In 90 minutes that electrified the world, some 200 modern day heroes risked everything to take a stand: 30 years after the Holocaust, the world was made to take notice: Jewish blood was no longer free for the taking. And Jews everywhere walked a little taller
This past week marked 35 years since that historic raid on Entebbe, and it is worth considering one of the questions that still reverberates from that raid.
In 1948, we built this state, were willing to suffer and even die for it, because there was no other choice. But today there is a choice. In fact, there are lots of them. A Jew can go to America, to the West, to the East, even back to Germany.
So with a nuclear Iran around the corner and a missile’s launch away, Hezbollah threatening an Islamic terror state to our north, and the post Arab Spring uncertainty to our south maybe we should be asking ourselves: why are we here? Why should we be willing to die for this? Why do we need the State of Israel? Do we need a Jewish state?
After all, a Jew today can live a wonderful Jewish life in many different places all over the world, with wonderful Jewish schools, plenty of kosher restaurants, an abundance of beautiful synagogues and close-knit Jewish communities, with wonderful homes and great jobs, and they don’t have to be willing to die for it! So why should we? Why not go to America?
To be sure, there are many here in Israel (I would posit most Israelis) who believe that we do need a Jewish State. Indeed, the two issues that form a consensus amongst the overwhelming majority of Jewish Israelis are that Arab refugees and their offspring cannot be given the right of return, and that we should not give up Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel. Both of these consensus issues are clearly about the need for a Jewish state. Yet most Israelis cannot articulate why we need a Jewish state.
At Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem’s Old City, we have a leadership training program both for post high school students spending a year with us before heading off to college as well as for rabbinical students in our fellowship program, looking to gain skills towards becoming better educators and leaders. And one of the topics that comes up consistently is the need to be organized, in order to achieve one’s goals.
In order to accomplish anything in this world, you need to know your mission, or goals; you need to have defined what you are trying to accomplish. And you need a system to accomplish it.
The first thing G-d does upon creating mankind is to place us in the Garden of Eden. In our synagogues, the Torah scroll, which contains the essence of our mission as a people, has a very specific place, in the Ark, because anything which does not have a place, cannot fulfill its mission. The first thing G-d asks of the very first Jew is to take a journey, to a very specific place where this people can best achieve its goals.
People are often confused regarding the Jewish people because they are unclear as to whether we are a religion or a nation. A religion is a collection of beliefs. But a nation is not a nation unless it has a place. We are both a religion as well as a nation. And for a variety of reasons which stem back 4000 years to the time when we first received our mission, this land is our place. And it is only in this place that we can achieve our mission.
Thousands of years ago, a rag-tag band of former slaves accepted a mission; to make the world a better place; to be a light unto the nations; to be a partner in making this world a better place for all human beings. And in order to be such a light, we need to be a model, a visible example of what the world could be. And we can only be that light, that model, in this place.
Long ago, we forgot our mission; we lost our sense of purpose and as such we lost our
G-d given right to be in this place, and were forced to wander the face of the earth, scattered amongst the nations, unable to fully achieve our purpose.
Today, after two thousand years of wandering and dreaming, we have come home, to the place where we can finally return to our mission, our calling to helping to build a better world. And the world needs us to achieve that mission, not just for the Jewish people, but for human beings everywhere. Every nation is created by G-d, and thus every nation has a purpose, and this is ours: to make the world a better place; to be a light.
Thirty-five years ago on a lonely strip of runway deep in the heart of Africa, a small band of brave men rekindled that light for all the world to see, and as a result the world became a better place. We owe it to the memory of those that fell then, and since, to make sure that light continues to grow, here, in the land of Israel today, and every day.
And every Jew everywhere owes it to our future generations, and to the world, to at least consider, that maybe it is time to come home, and be a part of that light.
Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem.

Rav Binny Freedman, Rosh Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem’s Old City is a Company Commander in the IDF reserves, and lives in Efrat with his wife Doreet and their four children. His  weekly Internet ‘Parsha Bytes’ can be found at www.orayta.org