Shimon Peres A”H

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? 

         Declare if you have the understanding.

That was G-d's challenge to Job. He was telling Job – telling us all – that we really have no understanding of His plans, His methods, and, especially, His thoughts.

And we don't. It's a mistake when we try to “out-think” G-d. We do not know, and we shall never know His thoughts and plans. The best we can hope to do is our best – to follow the principles we find in His holy books.

Shimon Peres did his best. He spoke his mind. He fought for the land which, according to our traditions, G-d had given to his people (His people).

I didn't always agree with the positions he took, but there was never any doubt about his intent. His end was always to establish a Middle East in which there was peace, in which Israel and the Jewish people could live fruitfully and in security. He sought a region – he sought a world – in which the lion and the lamb could like down together. Safely. Perhaps that required nuclear weapons, perhaps it required mutual concessions and understanding. Perhaps it required trust, even when there was no reason to expect it from your adversaries.

That's where our views differed. He was willing to give trust a chance. I wasn't. I had, and I have, no belief that the countries surrounding Israel will ever do what is, in my mind, the right thing.

But I had no knowledge of Peres's thoughts, and perhaps there was always a “Plan B” if things didn't work out. It's obvious that he knew far more about the area's political possibilities and its peoples than I and other laymen in Israel and foreign lands, and it's also obvious that he was a brilliant strategic thinker. It's also obvious that his approach was one that was far more nuanced and acceptable to the world than that of those like me.

Whatever his practices regarding Judaism's theological dicta, he strove for the goal of “peaceful coexistence.” He will be missed. Even by us hawks.