The IDF Press Service reported that IDF forces have completed the evacuation of another “hospital”, in a nutshell, a Hamas command center disguised as a hospital in the Gaza Strip — the “Al-Quds Hospital”.
Yesterday, the U. S. administration officially recognized Israel’s position on “hospitals” in the Gaza Strip, declaring, “Hamas’s use of the Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip as a command center is a war crime.”
“We have information,” continued the official source from the White House, “that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are using the hospitals for military activities and detaining hostages there.”
The IDF’s attention, as you know, is now focused primarily on the complex of tunnels constructed by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The central part of this enormous complex is, of course, the command centers located beneath the hospitals.
Looking at this situation from the perspective of Hasidic teachings, we can say that we are now faced with what Hasidic teachings call the “hidden evil”. There is a visible evil — these are negative mental qualities (our own or other’s), so-called “shells” and forces of darkness — all of them are on the surface, clearly visible and usually look very terrifying, however, namely because they are exposed to us and visible, it is easier to finally deal with them.
But there is also hidden evil, which is invisible, there are much deeper layers of darkness, obscurity and shadow, hidden worlds deep within, where our eyes cannot penetrate, they are not visible to us, and therefore it is much more difficult for us to detect such evil and deal with it.
The example given in the Hasidic teachings is the confrontation of our forefather Yaakov against the two great forms of evil — Lavan the Aramean and his brother Esav.
Esav’s evil was obvious — he went out to war against Yaakov with “four hundred of his men.” It should be noted that Yaakov, our forefather, seriously feared the upcoming battle. Therefore, he separated his men into two camps, and, according to our sages, prepared himself “for battle, prayer and war.” Eventually, the “confrontation” with Esav was quite short and swift, ending in Yaakov’s victory, while Esav himself returned to his own land without accomplishing anything, and the 400 men who had been with him left him.
The confrontation with Lavan, on the other hand, was much longer and more difficult. It lasted 20 years, and all those years Yaakov remained in Lavan’s house!
It was a very long period of time during which Yaakov was challenged by Lavan’s constant desire (note that the Hebrew word for “Aramean” is an anagram of the word for “deceiver”) to harm him. For example, Lavan shamelessly changed the payment promised to Yaakov “dozens of times” (a hundred times according to our sages). Eventually, the enormous evil hidden in him was revealed when Lavan, decided to cause physical harm to Yaakov and his family (by the way, this is why in the Passover Aggadah we say, “The Aramean was harming the father... Lavan tried to destroy everything...”).
The teachings of Hasidism explain that the reason why Yaakov had to confront Lavan for 20 years was because Lavan represented the “hidden evil” in our world, whose exposure and countering always takes a long time.
Yaakov was able to do this with great success. As we know that “the deeds of the fathers are an example for the sons” — we, too, are confronted these days with a hidden evil — the tunnels of Hamas, its underground launchers, its headquarters disguised as “hospitals” (according to the IDF, some employees of these facilities are Hamas members and terrorists, as well as some of the “patients” hospitalized there).
And so, now we see this evil actually being exposed, step by step. “Shell” after “shell” is being neutralized and by the grace of G-d destroyed.
Similarly, the evil in the rest of the world is gradually exposed. It is hard to believe how many people all over the world, including well-known people, many of whom we sincerely considered “our friends”, as well as many countries, have now justified the monstrous massacre — crimes against humanity committed by Hamas terrorists and other residents of Gaza.
Unfortunately, to our great regret, even in Israel there are still people, entire organizations, who make every imaginable and unimaginable logical tricks and deceptions in order to justify Hamas, and at the same time continue to accuse Israel of war crimes....
According to teachings of Chassidism, the clearing up of hidden evil precedes the era of Moshiach — the Redemption, so the fact that all of this is now coming to light, that the hidden evil is revealing itself — is a sign of the coming Redemption.
The best way, according to Chassidism, to deal with hidden evil is to discover the good that is within us, in the depths of our holy soul. And this, in turn, is achieved through Torah study and observance of the commandments, which bring each of us closer to the revelation of the world’s divine light, but first of all — through unleashing the powers of self-sacrifice and love for Israel, which in turn lead to the revelation of the Divine essence of our soul — the supreme power we possess.
Through the love and unity of Israel, as well as through the learning of Hasidism (the “divine essence” contained in the Torah) — we reveal to the world the hidden goodness that actually exists in literally every particle of Divine creation, and in this way reveal the “essence of the world” — the Holy One, blessed be His Name, bringing the true and complete Redemption closer.