6 november 2019

The war launched by Judas called Maccabeus, was a holy war, a war in the name of God and of the Torah. It is not surprising that it went according to the laws of the Torah, and according to these laws, should not participate to the war, the one who had just got married, or the one who had just built a new house, or the one who had just planted vineyard, from which is now expected the first harvest...

The war launched by Judas called Maccabeus, was a holy war, a war in the name of God and of the Torah. It is not surprising that it went according to the laws of the Torah, and according to these laws, should not participate to the war, the one who had just got married, or the one who had just built a new house, or the one who had just planted vineyard, from which is now expected the first harvest. And the problem here is not of course in the fact that the house, the vineyard or even the family is more important than God's work, which in the eyes of Judas, and all his associates was the fight against the Syrians.

The problem is in the priorities elaborated by the Torah, and thus, by God Himself. For God, a concrete person is always on the first place. Of course in life, as said a famous Soviet writer, there is always place for feat. He is right: as long as the world, according to the word of the Gospel, "is in evil", the sins of some will ask for the feats of others. Especially since there will be a place for feat in the war: because it is a borderline case by definition. But all wars sooner or later end. And all the feats are committed in the final account not for glory, but for the possibility of living this ordinary life, without which will not appear in the world heroes capable of feat. And it means that in the people, there must always be somebody who lives this ordinary life.

Even during the war which without doubt is for all God's affair. Of course it is shameful for an adult, a young man full of strength to stay at home at the moment when all his peers went to war, which for them, as for him, is holy. But for God the house, the family, the vineyard are not less important as the sword, the spear and the shield, even during the war. Truly bravely fights not the one who had nothing to lose, but the one who has what and who to protect.

God gives to each the possibility of obtaining and who and what had to be protected in a way that it is a question for those going at war not of an abstract "fatherland" or abstract ideals, and even not only of faith as such, but of concrete relatives, concrete house, concrete vineyard. So that the faith in God is connected for him with the love for the land given by God, and the holy war became a war not only for faith, but also for the land, on which stands his house, grows his vineyard and lives his family.