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):
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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)
