[Avodah] avodah Digest, Vol 1, Issue 2

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, 25 Aug 2006 11:37:13, R' Ben Waxman wrote:
: i was in a different situation during the war. i wasn't called up this
: time, but i did go up north several times to help in zefat and quiryat
: shemona. afterwards several people (not great rabbis) told me that i may
: have been over doing this. by placing myself in a makom sakana, which i
: didn't have any right to do, i lost whatever protection i may have had
: as someone doing a mitzva....

Sheluchei mitzvah einam nizaqin has the same exception -- "heikha dishekhiach
hezeiqa shaani" (the case of Shemu'el on Yuma 11a). Ask any soldier, no matter
how much of a baal bitachon, if he thinks he is entirely safe from nezeq while
fighting a war.

So, there is a difference between whether one is doing a mitzvah vs being
oveir a lav and whether one is placing oneself in saqanah.

Second, from my experience doing something similar (but arriving /after/ the
ceasefire), it is not like there is an overabundance of people going -- they
/still/ need supplies and chizuq. I do not see the idea that others /could
have/ gone to be too relevant, as opposed to the question of whether enough
are actually going.

(The issue of chizuq is particularly important now that many people are
wondering what their friends were injured or died for, and yet many believe
that the odds of the fight resuming is quite high. [Both phrased as opinion so
as to avoid discussions of the likelihood of truth of these beliefs. Assume
they are for the sake of theoretical converation.] As already noted, some
amount of morale boosting is on the level of hatzalas nefashos; better
motivated soldiers are more likely to survive.)

-mi
http://www.aishdas.org/asp