A narrow-minded focus sees the war between Russia and Ukraine, but on a broader level, it is possible that that which is happening before our eyes is World War III with Russia, China, and Iran vs. Europe and America. It seems that the reality is somewhere between these two perspectives.
In response to this earth-shattering clash – the State of Israel must first of all remind itself of its own place: with all the due respect that we give ourselves, we are a small country, one of the only countries in the world that some actively work to destroy and has not solidified its establishment entirely: it does not have recognized borders on all sides, and there are millions of people under its control who are not part of it. All of this must first and foremost lead to humility: we do not control the world and are still fighting for our lives. The Jewish prophets throughout the generations called on the Kingdom of Judea and Samaria not to involve themselves in the world’s wars.
Not only this, but even from a constricted view – we have tremendous scars left over from both of these countries. Our history with Ukraine is very difficult, from the days of Khmelnytsky Uprising to the Holocaust. Our history with the Russians is more complicated – they are the ones who fought the Nazis in World War II, however their relationship with Jews is one of the worst of the last few centuries. An integral part of Jewish halacha is historical recollection, and many holidays are based on this. History is not our chains; it is our roots.
Even after this – we still are not permitted to ignore the moral aspects of reality. The most dramatic process that has occurred in the last 80 years of international relations is the attempt to remove force and violence from the equation as a solution to overcoming conflict. The world’s awareness of the terrible price that was paid in the two World Wars has brought us an attempt to forge a new path. This path is still full of hypocrisy, manipulations, special power to the strong, and a saturation of falsehood, however in comparison to other possibilities, we must take part in it and rejoice in its existence. As a nation and religion whose end of days prophecy involves “nations will not lift a sword and will learn of war anymore”, we cannot abstain from taking part, in a limited fashion as previously stated, from any process based on this trend, even if there are many issues left unsolved.
The State of Israel must thus be on the sidelines of this great conflict and not push itself to participate in it, however even from the sidelines we must express this position. Even if there is a price to pay for this position – the moral sacrifice of ignoring this event will take a great toll as well. Our standing with the world in its fight against bombings, destruction, creation of multitudes of refugees, pollution, and violence must be expressed in the proper proportions for our existence. This is the part of the ethical and humane world that we would like to be a part of, even aside the fogginess of the many ulterior motives and innumerable factors – one must remember that we brought the world the message that “the one who spills man’s blood, his blood shall be spilled by man, for in the image of God was man made”, and through deep faith in standing with the side defending this principle. And if the possibility does indeed present itself to be a point for mitigation and discussion – this is a tremendous opportunity to allow Israel to do the most proper thing of them all.
