Tuesday, May 05, 2015

Keeping Mitzvot Saves Lives - A Miracle Story

I stopped blogging because many others have more inspiring things to say than I do, and they say it better. Especially Harav Yitschak Ginsburg. He speaks of this year, 5775, as the propitious year for the Ultimate Redemption to happen and I figured to give this year its chance to materialize in said way, without diluting this blog’s last post of the Rav and his powerful inspiration.

But I heard this miracle story I wanted to share with you nonetheless concerning the terrorist activity shown on Youtube (link) around the start of the Hamas Tunnel War in 2014 ("Operation Protective Edge" last summer).

A group of Jews of the chareidi variety were concerned about kosher sources of food for the oncoming two years of Shmittah and Yovel. So off they went to search all over Israel to locate wheat fields they can harvest to last them for these 2 years. They found large fields near the Gaza area where the wheat stalks were nice and high and still very green. When they went to the owners to negotiate a price for the harvest, the owners began offering selected portions of the area. In response the group said, “We’ll buy all of it!”, and so they did.

Soon after the war started with Hamas and their underground tunnels, these chareidis harvested their crop and stored away their cherished produce. They left the fields, once sprouting with high outgrowth, shaven.

That’s when Hamas happened to erupt from their underground tunnel, more than a dozen terrorists heavily armed, as a surprise tactic, in the middle of a field inside Jewish territory. We remember the video clip shown by Tzahal: Tzahal successfully spotted them by radar, emerging from the mouth of the tunnel by night, and bombed them, killing those that did not scurry back and disappear into their hole.

Those stationed for Tzahal at the radar desks were girl soldiers, who apparently have better concentration abilities than men for this job. When one of the girls noticed the unusual activity, she took action. It took all of 90 seconds before Tzahal targeted the infiltrators.

Had the chareidi group found their harvest in some other fields, this Hamas tactic could well have spread horrible tragedy, God forbid. Had this wheat not been harvested, its long stalks would easily have camouflaged the terrorists and prevented their detection.

Atrocity was averted all because some Jew tried to keep God’s commandments. Jews that learn and keep Torah, just as their soldiering peers, participate in Hashem's army, in one miraculous way or another.

As we just read in last week's Torah portion (Lev.18:5),
ושמרתם את חקתי ואת משפטי אשר יעשה אתם האדם וחי בהם
"Keep my commandments ... and you will live by them" - can be taken literally!

Just another little miracle among so many God does for us in all our wars and, indeed, every day and every moment of our lives.
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UPDATE (8/27/15):
Just found this video that tells the above story in more and accurate detail! HERE
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UPDATE (9/6/16):

Israeli soldiers seen walking among the flower beds at Nir Yitzhak, Southern Israel, on the spot which was a staging area for Israeli tanks and soldiers during last summer’s “Operation Protective Edge”. (Photo: Edi Israel/FLASH90)

4 comments:

in the vanguard said...

Mr. Cohen, I erased all your 7 comments, which were links to a gentile who regards muslims who seek our demise as the bad guys. Okay, 1 in a thousand do share our sympathies. It would be a big deal if he could compel other gentiles to see things as clearly and as honestly as does he.

But, frankly, I'm more interested in what YOU have to say, not Condell, Does this story I posted mean nothing to you that you entirely ignore it? I, for one, would like to know.

Anonymous said...

Chai Israel!
Ed

Anonymous said...

Your blog has better stuff then many Rabbis out there. The kria vehakedusha, the Rebbe's maamorim, etc are pure atzmus. All the other explanations, commentaries, etc as great and beautiful as may be, don't compare to the essence

Dovid Chaim said...

please return to blogging more often.

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