“For You hear the sound of the shofar and You harken to the voice of the truah” – from the Rosh Hashanah Liturgy 

 1) Shameful Self-Debasement 

Last week, the Jewish organization T’ruah held their annual conference, where they were addressed by New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani. They embraced, fawned, and kvelled over this adversary of the Jewish People in nauseating fashion. They also honored a man named Gili Getz, who has accused Israel of the usual litany of genocide and apartheid, the chic anti-Jewish libel-vomit of our time, which has [mostly] replaced the old charges of Deicide and usury, etc.

Since October 7th I have occasionally enjoyed trolling anti-Israel Jewish groups in these pages, by showing how Jewish identity cannot be separated from our attachment to the Land of Israel. T’ruah actually identifies as a Zionist organization, (much like how my early childhood hero Julius Erving identifies as a Doctor), and so they do at least nominally recognize our attachment to the Land. However, I will go one step further here by showing how that attachment to the Land cannot be Jewishly separated from our national right to defend it militarily, a right to which groups like T’ruah are systematically hostile, which I will show below.

Is such trolling petty and immature of me? Perhaps. But I find it somewhat therapeutic after October 7th, and if any other pro-Israel Jews out there find it comforting as well, then all the better. Let’s begin by briefly analyzing the very word T’ruah in our scripture and liturgy!

2) Sound the T’ruah for Religious War in Israel! 

In a Divine indication that God Himself may be joining me in my sneering at T’ruah, just this past Shabbat in the Torah reading we read from Bamidbar 10:9 – (translation from Chabad; emphasis my own)

וְכִֽי־תָבֹ֨אוּ מִלְחָמָ֜ה בְּאַרְצְכֶ֗ם עַל־הַצַּר֙ הַצֹּרֵ֣ר אֶתְכֶ֔ם וַֽהֲרֵֽעֹתֶ֖ם בַּֽחֲצֹֽצְרֹ֑ת וְנִזְכַּרְתֶּ֗ם לִפְנֵי֙ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֔ם וְנֽוֹשַׁעְתֶּ֖ם מֵאֹֽיְבֵיכֶֽם

“And when you go out to war in your Land against an adversary who attacks you, you must blow a T’ruah with the trumpets and be remembered favorably before the Lord your God, and thus be saved from your enemies”

We learn from this verse that the paradigmatic Divinely sanctioned Just War (milchemet mitzvah) is a Jewish defensive war in the Land of Israel! We can disagree about the morality of specific tactics in such a war. But the members of T’ruah, as far as I can tell, don’t seem to agree........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)