The First War

By HaRav Dov Begon
Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir

“In the seventh year, there will wars. At the end of the seventh, the Son of David will arrive.” 

 The first war mentioned in the Torah is the war of the four kings against the five, in the days of Amrafel, who was Nimrod (Rashi on Genesis 14:1). This war took place between two coalitions of wicked kings. Heading the four kings was Nimrod, and heading the five kings was the King of Sodom. The outcome of the first stage of the war was that the four kings defeated the five. At a later stage, however, the Patriarch Abraham defeated the winners, as it says, “He divided [his men] against them at night, he and his servants and he attacked them. He pursued them until Chovah, which is to the left of Damascus” (Genesis 14:15). As a result of Abraham’s victory, the kings and leaders of his generation bestowed great honor upon him: “The King of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from defeating Kedarlaomer and the kings that were with him, to the Valley of Shaveh which is the King's Valley” (14:17). Rashi comments, “It was a valley where all nations were in agreement and appointed Abraham over them as a prince of G-d and leader!” 

Our ancestors’ deeds presage our own! 

Today, 3,000 years after Abraham’s time, his descendants are rising to rebirth in Eretz Yisrael. The rebirth of the Jewish People is taking place in a time of wars. As our sages said, “In the seventh year, there will be wars. At the end of the seventh, the Son of David will arrive” (Sanhedrin 97a). World Wars I and II are directly and indirectly connected to the rebirth of the Jewish People, and it is the same with our own wars, from the War of Independence to the present war over our control of Eretz Yisrael. According to the Prophets (Zechariah 14; Ezekiel 38-39), the climax of wars will be the war of Gog and Magog, when the nations of the world will seek to conquer Jerusalem. Today, the Christian and Muslim worlds both long to do that. In this regard King David said, “Why are the nations in an uproar? Why do the peoples mutter in vain? The kings of the earth join ranks. The rulers take counsel together against the L-rd and against His anointed” (Psalm 2:1-2). 

Yet the outcome will be resounding victory over all those who long to conquer Jerusalem and to drive us out of our land. As King David then says, “You will break them with a rod of iron. You will smash them to pieces like a potter's vessel” (verse 9). And just as Abraham defeated the kings, so shall G-d’s great name be magnified and sanctified, as it says, “Thus will I magnify Myself and sanctify Myself. I will make Myself known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the L-rd” (Ezekiel 38:23). 

Looking forward to complete salvation,
Shabbat Shalom.