The Israel-Iran War Through the Lens of the Bible - Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein

What does God say about war? Does God want his children to go to war? Is this something that God blesses sanctions? Does Israel have the right to go to war as it has on 613 this past Friday 2025 when Israel launched an unprecedented war upon the archeneemy of not just Israel but the world. This isn't new. This is history repeating itself. You see, there was a time in Persia where there was a great king called Akash. And he had an adviser called Hmon. And Hmon presented the king with a plan to annihilate and eradicate every single Jew throughout the world. Now, this happens some 2500 years ago. The end did not fare very well for Hmon and his 10 children. That is the holiday of Purim that we celebrate every year. This anniversary of the miraculous anniversary where everything turned 180. Yes, there was a decree that every single Jew throughout all the kingdom, 127 countries will be annihilated on one day. And that day got flipped around and not only was the decree rescended, but the king gave the Jewish people the upper hand. released them, relieved them from all taxes, had compassion for them for for what they have been going through through the horrible terrible terror. Hmon and here we are some 2500 years later. Haven't we all heard the Kmenis, all the leaders of Iran say it very clearly, our goal is to wipe Israel off the map. It's not something that they say in an undertone or off-handedly. They make it part of their charter. That has become their mission. And when they repeat it again and again and again, so much so that today in Tehran there is a big clock with a countdown of when Israel is going to be annihilated. Have you pondered the question? See, I live in San Diego. My border country is Mexico. What would America do if Mexico would threaten total annihilation of every single citizens in San Diego and threaten again and again? And what would America do if all of a sudden Mexico starts sending missiles, beginning with little Kitusha missiles, then larger missiles, and then with ballistic missiles? How long would America wait till they respond? Israel has acted with great restraint. For almost 40 years. 40 years since the revolution. when the extremist of the Islam took over and became a country of tyranny, a dictatorship that all of the Iranian citizens now became enslaved to them, stripped of all their freedoms, living under fear of any violation, is punished by execution or by hanging. as we have seen over the 40 years. And they began making it very clear to the world that they will annihilate Israel and America. America being the big Satan, Israel being the small Satan. So what would God want Israel to do? Would God want Israel to sit back and listen to a threat and not take it seriously? Well, let's roll back in history about 88 plus years ago when there is a man in Vienna and then in Germany by the name of Hitler came up with a plan to kill every single Jew at that time. We heard him. Did we believe him? Were we able to do anything about it? The world was so worn down from World War I that no one was interested in a World War II and let history talk for itself what happened. Hitler did on his threat. He delivered on his threat and he started the war where 60 million people died. Six million of Jews, a third of the Jewish people were decimated, were burnt, were gassed, were tortured. Here we have another enemy who's saying the exact same words, repeating the words of Hmon, repeating the words of Hitler, that their life goal, their life mission is to annihilate Israel. So what says God? Let me tell you what God says. How do I know what God says? because I study what the Torah that God wrote. And in the Torah, God writes specifically rules of engagement. God when he created the world, he create us created us humans knowingly that we're all going to be faced with a choice of evil or good. And some of us are going to fall to be evil. and they're going to fight those that are good. It began with the very first two brothers, Cain and Abel. And it continued since then, Esau and Jacob. There's evil and there's good. Why God created the world like that? Only God knows. But God gave us rules of engagement. And he made it very clear. Anyone who is coming upon you to kill you, you must kill them first. It may sound brutal, but it is because God wants you to value life, not death. And your life is of greatest value. And if someone wants to come and take your life away, they don't have the right to do that. You must stop them in their ways. So when someone pursues you to kill you, the rules of engagement is you kill them first. And that is the law from the Bible and that is the law that we have lived by. Think about Israel who for 77 years has been trying to live in peace after the dark days of the Holocaust found its way to Israel. took a desolate, deserted land of 2,000 years, turned it into a flourishing country, a state, built a commerce that's able to feed the 7 plus million Jews and the other several million non-Jews that live there, was able to rebuild itself, get back on its feet, only to have to fight for its survival year after year after year after year as long as Mr. Bibi Netanyo has been prime minister and many of us thought he was just being repetitious or being paranoid but over the decades he has presented his case that the problem is not the Arabs in the north or the south but the problem is the Persian Empire the Iranians that is going to be our problem because they have a mission statement. They have no issues with us. They don't border with us. We don't have real estate conflicts with them. For them, they just don't want us to exist. They have some twisted mythology that requires them to annihilate anyone who doesn't believe what they believe. It's very interesting. in Judaism is just a polar opposite. In Judaism, we don't require anyone to believe on what we believe. We don't proitize. We don't look for non-Jews to become Jews. As a matter of fact, we honor and respect all religions, all people from all faiths, and we love every single one as oursel. That's a mandate from the Torah versus they believe that everyone must follow their ways otherwise we're all infidels and we all deserve to die and that is what they are focused on. They have said it, they have proven it. The question is why can't they have a nuclear reactor? Why can't they have nuclear energy? Well, look what happened the last 48 hours, 72 hours when Israel launched the war to be able to neutralize all the military productions, factories, bases, etc. to stop them from terrorizing Israel and other countries. It was laser focused on military. However, when the Iranians decided to retaliate, they did it indiscriminately. They sent ballistic missiles into residential neighborhoods, just decimating blocks. Israel Iron Dome, David Sling and the arrow has done whatever it can to protect 95% is huge, but the 5% is devastating that gets through. Imagine if Iran would have access to a nuclear bomb. Would they hesitate for a second to evaporate all of Israel and all the Arabs that are living around them? Not for a second. So, we are living in a very difficult times, very dangerous times. We need to side with God who wants life, wants us to live. And we need to do whatever we can to preserve humanity and to stop anyone who's trying to work against God and against life and against humanity. Iran is a nation of death. It's a death cult. They live by death. We live by life. It's so hard for us to comprehend to wrap our brains around it. how they bring up children and and they put the children in the minefields so that they could blow up first and telling them that this is a gift to God when they get blown up. We cannot comprehend any of that. But yet they live by it. They die by it. So this is the answer. God wants us to fortify our borders. God wants us to defend ourselves. God has given us a tremendous amount of wisdom and knowledge to be able to fight our enemy. And what Israel has pulled off this last week, the world sees that this isn't just a tiny nation, a small nation amongst all the other nations that are there. We may be small in real estate. We may be small in numbers, but we are plugged in with the divine. We are connected with God and we are here to bring God's message to the world. A God that's a loving God. A God that doesn't want to see bloodshed. A God that doesn't want to see death. A God has given us the tools, the wisdom, and the ability to be able to destroy the axis of evil. Let's pray and we hope that Israel succeeds. The world should stand in awe and salute Israel for taking the lead, taking the initiative before it is too late. It was very close to have been too late. Let's pray and we hope that Israel be victorious. eliminate the nuclear reactors or the nuclear capacity for Iran and let's hope that there's a regime change that they will bring back liberties and free and freedoms for the local citizens and peace would once again be ushered into the Middle East. God bless you. God loves you.