Shavuot 5774: Jonathan Pollard and Ruth: For the Sake of Heaven

The impact of actions L'Shem Shemayim (for the sake of Heaven) on the Jewish People.

Moshe Burt - Arutz 7 - Erev Shavuot 5774, June 3, 2014

"The Tablets were six tefachim (handbreadths) long -- in some sense, Hashem grasped two tefachim, Moshe grasped 2 tefachim and 2 tefachim bridged the gap between them."

Shem Mishmuel then explains (pages 302 - 304):

"We can sub-divide all mitzvot, and indeed, all human endeavors into three spheres: thought, speech and action. There are some Mitzvot which require a Jew to think in a particular way. For example, the first of the Ten Commandments demands belief in Hashem.

Other Mitzvot are dependent on speech. For example, one must verbally recall Shabbos.... not lie to the Beis Din or speak badly of another.

Finally, there are many Mitzvot which utilize the Jew's power of action. There are requirements to put on tefillin, shake the lulav, eat matzah, etc.

...Each of these three divisions reflect different interactions between man and Hashem.

Action... is entirely in an individual's domain. He is not forced to do anything that he doesn't want to do.

The actions of the Jew determine everything, even the ultimate success or failure of the peoples of the world. This idea is illustrated by Chazal:

"After Yisrael did that wicked act [the sin of the golden calf], Hashem wanted to grab the tablets from Moshe. However Moshe prevailed and snatched them back."

To conclude, the actions of a Jew can have enormous consequences for good or for bad. Literally, everything depends upon it. And it could be that when the Jews received the Torah at Sinai they had all this in mind when they proclaimed: "All that Hashem has said, we will do and hear." (Sefer Shemot, Chap. 24, verse 7)

In reflecting on Shavuot and the story of Ruth, it is striking to view the similarity of actions between Ruth's cleaving to Naomi and to Jewishness, and Jonathan Pollard's actions on behalf of Israel and Bnai Yisrael - putting his life on the line, the price - come what may - now in his 30th year of incarceration, for the survival of the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael - Our Land. Jonathan is not a Ger Tzeddeket, proselyte, as Ruth was when she clung to Naomi saying;

"Do not urge me to leave you, to go back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people are my people, and your G-d is my G-d; where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. Thus may Hashem do to me - and more! - if anything but death separates me from you." (Megillat Ruth, Artscroll Tanach series, Chap. 1, verses 14-17, pages 79-81)

There was no mandate, no earthly obligation for Ruth to follow Naomi. She could have done what her sister-in-law Orpah did - they were both widowed of Naomi and Elimelech's sons Machlon and Kilyon. When after the deaths of her husband and two sons, Naomi sought to return to Eretz Yisrael and bid the two widows to return to their Moabite people and land. Orpah tearfully left Naomi and returned to Moav, while Ruth clung to Naomi and her Jewishness thus charting her life unalterably along a Jewish path.

In much the same way, Jonathan Pollard, Yehonaton ben Malka, then working in the US defense department, was under no earthly obligation to act, to furnish Israel with important intelligence. He could have taken the easy path - the path undoubtedly taken by many others, to just do his job, without giving a thought to his people. He would have been free man, not incarcerated for nearly 30 years - but where would Israel be??

The point this author is about to make seems needed to heard, understood and internalized by Rabbis involved in chinuch (teaching of observant youth in Yeshiva katanah - religious elementary schools) with such subject matter taught to young minds with more impact and sensitivity:

Just as Ruth heard/felt a Divine Imperative, the full extent of which she probably didn't near fully comprehend - the lineage of Jewish Kingship, so too Jonathan Pollard, although guilty of spying in the land of his birth, his employer, acted on internal impetus and initiative in service of a Divine Imperative which overrode any possible allegiance to his employer and to his nation of birth - the security and wellbeing of His people. Yes, Jonathan Pollard spied on behalf of an ally -- but he provided Israel with information regarding Iraq and Sada'am Hussein's capacity for chemical warfare and weapons of mass destruction -- information which the US was bound by it's Strategic Co-operation agreement with Israel to provide her.

Jonathon's term of imprisonment is documented by numerous sources, (including these top US officials) as excessively far more than even that meted out to spies who cost American lives and assets by the information they provided to hostile and/or enemy nations. One further note: It is thanks to Jonathan Pollard that Israel has sealed rooms in all homes and buildings constructed for well over 25 years.

And so, as we re-read and re-learn the Megillat Ruth and its impact upon Am Yisrael -- Am Yehudi, and upon all mankind for all time, of Ruth's cleaving to Naomi, of her brief union with Boaz and their offspring from whom descended David the King, we must also consider the parallel between Ruth's actions and impact upon Am Yisrael and Jonathan Pollard's selfless actions on behalf of Israel and their impact upon Am Yisrael and upon mankind.

We must daven fervently, beseech the Heavens, and scream out letting our voices be heard by Israel's leaders to push the United States on behalf of our fellow Jew in distress -- Yehonaton ben Malka.

May we merit that Hashem see fit to bring about Jonathan's speedy release, liberation and return to his Eretz Yisrael .

The author is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network.

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