[social_warfare buttons=”Twitter”]Over the last few days, center stage of the world’s attention has been the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Since the official end of World War II in September 1945, there have been dozens of wars, all of them far away from our borders and most of them without our direct involvement. Yet, this war of Russia against, at least initially, Ukraine, feels different.

In a recent New York Times newsletter, David Leonhardt suggests that there are two main reasons why this war is different. First, it is one of the few times in the last 80 years that one of the world’s most powerful countries have used their military to expand their borders in a quest for regional dominance. This war of aggression signals that the era of abiding by treaties and international rules has come to an end.

Second, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is an autocracy taking over a democracy by force. This brazen, almost unprecedented act contributes to the perception and perhaps the reality of a democratic recession around the world. The rise of the authoritarian regimes of Russia and China signal a difficult period ahead for democracy.

Finally, living in a social media and technology connected world, the war in Ukraine is unfolding in real time before our eyes. We watch the shelling, the explosions, the gunfire, the tanks rumbling through the streets and the tracers lighting up the sky, on our phones, computers and televisions. In some strange kind of way, it’s a chilling sense of being spectators to the unfolding of history.

An additional component of what makes this war different is defined by its connection to us as a Jewish community and the deep roots of a Jewish connection to Ukraine.

On the one hand, the Jewish connection to Ukraine has been marked by pogrom and persecution. The gezeirot tach v’tat (the evil decrees of 1648 and 1649) are also known in Jewish history as the Khmelnitsky massacres. The Hebrew letters of the words tach v’tat are equal to the numbers 408 and 409, corresponding to the years 5408 (1648) and 5409 (1649). Although the estimates vary, there are those who say some 250,000 Jews of Ukraine were killed by the Cossacks.

In the early 1900s, the Jewish community of Ukraine was caught in the crosshairs of the Russian Revolution and the founding of the Soviet Union. But the worst was yet to come as the Nazis, assisted by many in the local Ukraine population, murdered as many as 1 million Ukrainian Jews. Many are familiar with the mass shootings and the massacre at Babi Yar in September 1942. Babi Yar is a large ravine on the northern side of the capital city of Kyiv, probably a site of intense fighting as this is being written.

On the other hand, the bloodstained soil of Ukraine gave rise to the Hasidic movement. Although the Ba’al Shem Tov lived in Poland, his most famous student and perhaps the individual most responsible for the spread of Hasidism, R’ Dov Ber, lived in Mezeritch in western Ukraine. Within a generation Ukraine was home to some of the most influential and important Hasidic masters, among them R’ Levi Yitzchak of Berditshiv and R’ Nachman of Breslov. Each year hundreds of thousands of Jews make the pilgrimage to the grave of R’ Nachman in Uman (about 125 miles south of Kyiv).

Our parsha records the appointment of Betzalel as the architect and general contractor for the building of the Mishkan. Betzalel was from the tribe of Yehudah and a grandson of Chur who was killed during the Cheit HaEgel. He was assisted by Ohaliav who was from the tribe of Dan. Dan, being the child of Rachel’s handmaiden Bilhah, had a lower status than that of Yehudah, and this was reflected in the relative status of their respective shvatim.

Why were the tribes of Yehudah and Dan put together through Betzalel and Ohaliav as the builders of the Mishkan?

Rashi suggests that there is an important lesson to be learned from this union. Hashem chose Betzalel and Ohaliav to work together, representing these tribes of different status, to confirm that which is written in Sefer Iyov (Job 34:19) “He regards not the rich more than the poor”.

The Midrash Tanchumah develops this even further and records that this union teaches “shegadol vekatan shavin lifne Hakadosh Baruch Hu.” – in the eyes of Hashem the great and the not so great stand equally.

This was one of the primary messages that Hasidism brought to the Jewish world. The wealthy and the poor, the educated and the uneducated, the observant and the not yet observant could all stand equally before Hashem. Everyone has an intrinsic value and worth in Hashem’s eyes.

The world could benefit from such a perspective on human life, especially during these dark days. May our prayers for peace in the world be speedily answered.