The head of Betar, Zeev Jabotinsky, tells in his book "Megillat HaGdud" the story of the establishment of the Hebrew battalions, which he founded together with his friend and partner - Yosef Trumpeldor. The two discussed what was needed in those days ":" We need people ready 'for everything', for everything that the Land of Israel will require.
We must establish a generation that has no interests or habits.
Just throwing iron.
Flexible - but iron.
A metal from which everything necessary for the national system can be forged.
I'm the pure idea of service, ready for anything, I'm not connected to anything, I know only one commandment: to build! "
In those pre-state days, with a very sparse Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel, Trumpeldor described in simple words what it takes for the people of Israel to create and build a state and independence for themselves: volunteering, devotion for the common good and for the land.
Jabotinsky said at the end of the same conversation with Trumpeldor, regarding the "pioneers": "There are no such people."
"There will be," Trumpeldor argued.
And Trumpeldor not only said, but also did.
Despite his age (almost 40 years old), his rich military past (an esteemed and outstanding officer in the Russian army) and his limitation due to the battles he went through (lost his left hand), Trumpeldor moved to the farthest and most complex settlement settlement, joining except for the Galilee. In Tel Hai.
For many months he did everything to establish settlement in the Galilee region: he helped the residents of the area, fortified the settlement and called for the strengthening of settlement with other Jews.
On Adar 1920, which is celebrated today, the young settlement was surrounded by hundreds of Arabs.
Six Jews were killed in the battle, including Trumpeldor.
In his last moments he said the sentence attributed to him: "It is good to die for our country."
After Trumpeldor's death, Jabotinsky wrote of him, referring to their conversation about the Hebrew pioneer: "I was wrong, and he (Trumpeldor) was right. The first of these people sat before me. He himself was like this: a lawyer, working on a farm. "Earth, he died there from a bullet from a rifle, said 'nothing' and died as an immortal."
102 years after the Tel Hai incident, the same values that Trumpeldor believed in bind us, with hundreds of thousands of Jewish-Ukrainian refugees fleeing for their lives.
We are a home and a people for them.
Chabad emissaries, who are a pillar of fire at the head of the camp, embrace the refugees with love and devotion and do so in the same spirit that Trumpeldor believed in - "all Israel guarantees each other."
The Betar movement, founded on behalf of Yosef Trumpeldor (Brit Yosef Trumpeldor), has been educating for almost 100 years on the same construction of a "pure idea of service."
Young people are exposed to the settlement stories of the 1920s, out of a desire to embrace the values and act in light of them in their adult lives as well.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us