![Israel must continue to be able to deter Hezbollah, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar stressed on Wednesday, speaking amid efforts to reach a ceasefire with Iran's Lebanese terrorist proxy. "We need to keep the freedom to act if there will be violations. And we will have to act in time, before the problem will grow," the minister told a gathering of nearly 100 foreign ambassadors in Jerusalem, the Times of Israel reported. A deal to end more than a year of fighting on the northern border must be durable, Sa'ar said, saying Jerusalem “would like to reach an agreement that will stand the test of time." He added that a ceasefire would be an "opportunity" for Lebanon to regain its sovereignty after the Israeli military severely degraded the Iranian-backed group in recent months. He called for the Lebanese Armed Forces to be strengthened and urged the international community to invest more in the economically devastated country, which is drowning in debt following years of mismanagement and corruption. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also emphasized on Wednesday the necessity for Jerusalem to be able to act against any Hezbollah threats that may arise after a ceasefire deal is implemented. “The condition for any political settlement in Lebanon is the preservation of the intelligence capability and the preservation of the [IDF’s] right to act and protect the citizens of Israel from Hezbollah,” Katz said. Meanwhile, U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein remained in Beirut for a second day on Wednesday to discuss "technical details" of an American ceasefire proposal with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who heads the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement. President Joe Biden's point man in the Land of the Cedars announced he would travel to Israel on Wednesday night, speaking after he made "additional progress" in a second meeting with Berri. Hochstein was scheduled to meet with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer shortly after his arrival, followed by a tête-à-tête with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the following day. “The meeting today built on the meeting yesterday, and made additional progress,” Hochstein said. “So I will travel from here in a couple hours to Israel to try to bring this to a close if we can.” The Biden envoy added that he will work with the incoming Trump administration on ceasefire efforts, saying that he has kept the president-elect's transition team informed of progress. Hochstein described as "very productive" his meetings with Lebanese officials on Tuesday. “We have a real opportunity to end the conflict, and now is the moment to decide. We are committed to doing everything we can to work with Lebanon and Israel to end this conflict,” Hochstein said at a press conference on Tuesday. Hochstein also met on Tuesday with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and he was scheduled to meet with Lebanese Armed Forces commander Gen. Joseph Aoun. Mikati emphasized that Lebanon’s primary objectives are achieving a ceasefire and safeguarding its sovereignty. He highlighted the need to implement international resolutions and bolster the Lebanese Armed Forces in the southern part of the country. Lebanon delivered its written response to the latest U.S. proposal on Monday. According to Ali Hassan Khalil, an aide to Berri, the response included “comments” that were “presented in a positive atmosphere.” He did not provide details on the nature of the comments, saying only that they “affirm the precise adherence to [U.N. Security Council] Resolution 1701 with all its provisions,” according to Reuters. Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said in a speech on Wednesday that the terrorist group had "read the ceasefire proposal. "We have our comments, and Nabih Berri has comments, and ours and the Lebanese government's comments are, Inshallah ['God willing'], identical," Qassem said. "We have decided not to discuss these ceasefire proposals or our comments in the media. All I will say is that Israeli is trying to obtain through negotiations what it couldn't through war." The terrorist leader vowed to “continue our efforts on the ground, whether the negotiations succeed or not. “We are confronting a savage enemy, and we will remain on the ground, no matter the cost, as we will also increase the cost for the enemy. We are facing Israeli human monsters supported by American human monsters,” threatened Qassem. Disarm and retreat Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, stipulated that Hezbollah must disarm and retreat north of the Litani River, but was never enforced. The Litani lies some 20 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border. Its enforcement, along with Israeli freedom of operation in Lebanon should Hezbollah violate the terms of a ceasefire agreement, are the key sticking points in the current negotiations. Netanyahu emphasized during a speech in the Knesset plenum on Monday that Israel will not allow Hezbollah to “return to the state it was in on Oct. 6, 2023. “We will be required, in order to ensure our security in the north, to systematically carry out operations—not only against Hezbollah’s attacks, which could come. Even if there is a ceasefire, nobody can guarantee it will hold. So it’s not only our reaction, a preventive reaction, a reaction in the wake of attack but also the capacity to prevent Hezbollah from strengthening,” he said. Hezbollah has launched some 16,000 rockets, missiles and drones from Lebanon at Israel since joining the war in support of Hamas on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after the Gaza-based terrorist group’s massacre in southern Israel. More than 60,000 residents of northern Israel remain internally displaced due to the ongoing rocket and drone attacks from Lebanon. Seventy-six people in northern Israel have been killed by Hezbollah cross-border rocket, missile and drone attacks since the start of the war, including 31 soldiers and six foreign citizens, according to the latest data provided by the Prime Minister’s Office, updated on Sunday. In addition, 729 people have been wounded, including 497 civilians and 232 soldiers. Of these, 29 civilians and 37 soldiers were severely injured; 63 civilians and 38 soldiers were moderately injured and 405 civilians and 157 soldiers were lightly injured. Hezbollah’s leadership has been left in tatters following a series of targeted killings by Israel, including that of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Sept. 27. This was preceded by Israeli sabotage of Hezbollah communication devices that killed 39 people and wounded more than 3,400 members of the terrorist group. Israel has been waging a devastating aerial campaign against Hezbollah throughout Lebanon, including its stronghold of Dahieh south of Beirut. According to Israeli estimates, the terrorist group has lost most of its arsenal to the ongoing strikes. Then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in late October that Hezbollah had lost an estimated 80%-plus of its long-range rockets since the start of the war. Israel also continues to battle Hamas terrorists in Gaza. The terrorist group still holds 101 hostages in the Strip, 97 of whom were kidnapped on Oct. 7. Many of the captives are believed to be dead. Brazil summit Meanwhile, G20 leaders gathered in Rio de Janeiro for a summit put out a joint statement on Monday calling for “comprehensive” ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon. The leaders of the world’s biggest economies called for U.S. proposals to end fighting in Gaza and free the hostages, and one for Lebanon “that enables citizens to return safely to their homes on both sides of the Blue Line.” The 13-point U.S. proposal presented to Lebanese officials on Nov. 14 includes a 60-day truce, during which Lebanon would redeploy its troops along the border. The proposal also calls for Moscow to prevent Hezbollah from resupplying itself via Syrian land routes. Hezbollah would retreat north of the Litani River, with the border area then being under control of the Lebanese Armed Forces, overseen by the United States and Britain. Israeli officials are emphasizing, however, that the Israel Defense Forces must retain freedom of operation in Lebanon to thwart attempts by Hezbollah to violate the agreement and rearm and reestablish itself. A senior Israeli diplomatic official told Israel Hayom on Saturday that the IDF will retain operational freedom to respond to any security threats from across the northern border, regardless of any diplomatic arrangements. However, a source close to Hezbollah told The Washington Post that the group’s “condition for progress remains clear: Israel must be prohibited from conducting operations within Lebanese territory.” Berri emphasized at the time that any ceasefire agreement must not include the ability for Israel to attack by land, sea or air, Channel 12 reported. “Otherwise, what’s the purpose of an agreement?” he remarked. Another sticking point is Lebanon’s objection to the United Kingdom and Germany monitoring the implementation of U.N. Resolution 1701. Beirut reportedly favors the United States and France. If the ceasefire efforts fail, there are plans in the works to expand ground operations in Lebanon, an Israeli military official told the Post. Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer discussed the proposal with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump during a visit to his Florida estate earlier this month, as well as with senior Biden administration officials in Washington. Dermer also traveled to Russia to discuss the ceasefire proposal. Tehran is telling its Lebanese terrorist proxy Hezbollah that it supports ending the war against Israel, The New York Times reported over the weekend. Ali Larijani, senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, met with senior Lebanese officials in Beirut on Nov. 15 to discuss the matter. Two Iranians affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps told the Times that Larijani conveyed messages to Hezbollah from Khamenei that he supported the end of the war and that the regime would assist with rebuilding the terrorist group’s forces and recovering from the war.](https://jewishwebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Gideon-Saar-1320x880-2-218x150.jpg "Sa’ar: Israel must be free to act against Hezbollah truce violations")
What will be the single most popular question at seder tables around the world this year?
Probably the same as every year: “When do we eat?!”
Seriously speaking, have you had your fair share of questions at the seder? Any room for a few more?
Last week, I wrote about the famous seder in Bnai Brak mentioned in the Haggadah. The great sages were discussing the Exodus story and its ramifications all night long until their students came in the morning. This week I would like to ask a related question. In fact, I could divide it into my own “Four Questions.”
“It once happened on Seder night that Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Joshua, Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon were dining together in Bnai Brak.”
Question 1: Why does the Haggadah tell us the venue, Bnai Brak?
Question 2: Did all those esteemed sages live in Bnai Brak?
Question 3: Did they not have their own families?
Question 4: Did they not have their own congregations and communities?
How did it come to pass that all these esteemed rabbis were together at one seder?
Well, let’s investigate the historical record: When did these rabbis live? The answer is that it was at a terrible time in our history. The Holy Temple had been destroyed by the Roman legions and lay in ruins. The Roman oppression of the Jewish remnants was brutal. The streets of Israel were littered with Jewish corpses. There were no human-rights organizations to protect Jewish victims (not that they protect them now either). Times were not only tough but probably the worst they had been in centuries.
And the great sages of Israel were in no mood for a dinner party.
A seder? To celebrate the Exodus from Egypt 1,500 years ago? To remember our liberation? We are enslaved all over again! How can we celebrate? We may be free from Pharaoh but now we have new Roman overlords. How can we drink four cups of freedom at a time like this?
So the sages were in no seder spirit that Passover. Maybe we should give it a miss this year, they might have been thinking.
And that is precisely why they were in Bnai Brak. No, they did not all live there; but they went to Rabbi Akiva, the Rav of Bnai Brak, to join him at his seder.
Why?
Because they reckoned that if there was anywhere to be this Pesach, it had to be with Rabbi Akiva. In fact, they decided it was the only place they could be.
Why is that?
At the very end of Makkot, the Talmud tells the story of how some of these very sages were surveying the ruins of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem from Mount Scopus when they witnessed the most disturbing sight. They saw a fox coming out of the site of the Holy of Holies. They burst into tears.
But Rabbi Akiva smiled.
The sages challenged Rabbi Akiva: “On desolate Mount Zion foxes are running in and out of our holiest site, and you smile?”
Rabbi Akiva replied: “I could never believe it would happen, that the Temple would be destroyed. That Jerusalem should be razed to the ground. How was this possible? But the prophet foresaw it and told us it would indeed happen. And he was right. Well, there are other prophecies too, including a prophecy of redemption, that Jerusalem will be rebuilt. Now that I see with my own eyes that the prophecy of destruction has been fulfilled, I can believe that the prophecy of redemption will likewise be fulfilled. And so, I smiled.”
The sages famously responded, “Akiva nichamtanu, Akiva nichamtanu—Akiva, you have comforted us. Akiva, you have comforted us.”
So now, as these same sages agonized over how to celebrate the Festival of Freedom in such dire and dismal circumstances, they decided that the only place they could possibly be for the seder was with Rabbi Akiva. He could comfort them. He could give them some of his spirit, hope, faith, confidence and solace.
That is why all these outstanding luminaries were together in Bnai Brak that Pesach night.
And what about us?
How do we celebrate the Festival of Freedom knowing that our loved ones are still prisoners in Gaza? How do we celebrate knowing that any minute we could be forced to run to bomb shelters? How free are we?
I think if we walked down the ancient cobblestones of Bnai Brak, we might hear the legendary Rabbi Akiva giving us comfort, too: “It’s true that so many of our families are suffering the loss of their loved ones and the painful absence of the hostages. And we indeed have no peace partner and nothing to look forward to on the political landscape. But there is not only destiny in deliverance. There is also destiny in darkness and even in disaster.
“We have no one to rely on but our Father in Heaven. And our own unity. When we are together as brothers and sisters, look at the miracles we have just experienced! Over 300 Iranian missiles and drones and hardly any damage whatsoever with 99% stopped in their tracks! Those who know argue that this was nothing less than a miracle of biblical proportions! Do we not have something to celebrate? Do we not have so much to still be thankful for?”
I hope Rabbi Akiva will forgive me for allowing myself the editorial license to paraphrase him speaking to us today. Maybe his words would be different. But I believe the message would be the same.
Whether we’re in Bnai Brak or Boston, Jerusalem or Johannesburg, let us connect to Rabbi Akiva’s message of vision, hope and inspiration. And please God, may we soon see the fulfillment of the prophecies of redemption for Israel and the whole world.