We Thank Hashem for the Miracles
As I write these words on Sunday, I cannot stop thinking about Korach, the namesake of the parsha we leined this past Shabbos. I never cease marveling at the lessons we can learn from Korach, about the devastating impact of excessive pride and the lust for honor. But we are now headed toward Parshas Chukas, and I must turn my attention toward the future in this column as well, despite the fact that there is much to write about the tremendous miracles of the past two weeks.
Still, let me begin with some statistics to give you an idea of the magnitude of recent events. The past couple of weeks have brought us about 13,000 air raid sirens throughout the country, with the launches of almost 600 missiles and 1250 drones from Iran. Despite the massive number of missiles, only 63 projectiles landed in populated areas. And while that is a large number of missiles with the potential to create major havoc, we must also recognize that it is only a tiny fraction of the actual number of launches. Twenty-nine people were killed in the attacks; the relatively low death toll is miraculous. Equally wondrous was the casualty count; about 3300 people were wounded, with their injuries ranging from severe to light. To put these numbers in perspective, we must keep in mind that the defense establishment had warned in advance that a military conflict with Iran could lead to thousands of deaths. From a statistical standpoint—one that is not based on emunah—those projections were certainly sound. But we know that Hashem watches over us, and miracles are an integral part of our survival. Once again, we have emerged from a period of tension with intense yet mixed emotions: We are deeply saddened by the deaths, the injuries, and the plight of 15,000 people whose homes were damaged or destroyed, but we also rejoice over the fact that our country was spared from a much worse fate.
Parenthetically, and for the sake of comparison, we should note that Israel attacked 300 targets in Iran, including nine nuclear facilities. Thirteen (or more) high-ranking Iranian officials were eliminated, some of them in positions of great seniority. One can only imagine the serious blow to an army’s morale if the chief of staff or commander of the air force is eliminated, and the IDF’s operations had a devastating impact on the Iranian army. Israeli air strikes also eliminated sixteen scientists whose knowledge was pivotal for Iran’s nuclear program. Just to paint a picture of the boldness and sophistication of the Israeli attacks, let us quote the Daily Wire, which is connected to Ben Shapiro, who defends Israel in numerous forums. According to this media outlet, the Mossad established a top-secret telephone line in Iran that was used by all the leaders of the Revolutionary Guard to remain in contact with each other. Using that phone line, the Mossad agents summoned the Iranian military leaders to an emergency meeting, and then Israel began its aerial bombardment, killing the entire group of high-ranking officials all at once. I have no idea how much of this is true, but it is certainly meaningful enough that these are the stories being told about the Mossad.
There is another miracle that no one is discussing, because few people have even paid attention to it: There wasn’t a single Israeli plane that was damaged over Iran, and there wasn’t a single Israeli pilot who was forced to bail out of his plane and parachute into enemy territory. This is an unbelievable miracle, since the loss of at least one pilot was deemed almost inevitable, statistically speaking.
If even one Israeli pilot had been captured in Iran, the country’s euphoric sense of victory would have dissolved under the onslaught of bitter sorrow. Such is the nature of the nation of Israel; our people have always keenly felt the plight of our brethren in captivity, whether it was the prisoners held in Egypt and Syria during the Six Day War or the Yom Kippur War, or Ron Arad and Gilad Shalit, or the Israelis who have been cruelly abducted and held by Hamas in recent months. When the people of Israel know that a prisoner has been wounded as well as being captured, their anguish nearly drives them mad with worry. Moreover, Israeli soldiers risk their lives even to retrieve a body being held by the enemy, and the entire country is racked by anguish even by the captivity of a deceased person. When the chief of staff mentioned that Israeli commandos were stationed in Iran during the air strike, rumor has it that he was referring to the soldiers who were ready to leap into action in the event that a plane was shot down or abandoned by its pilot. These soldiers were trained for this scenario and were tasked with fighting to prevent a pilot from falling into the hands of the enemy. To make a long story short, dozens of planes—some put the number at 52—flew to Iran to participate in the air strikes and returned safely to their bases.
Thank You, Hashem!
The Single Drone That Penetrated Israel’s Defenses
When Nitai and Ateret Elkayam of Beit Shean emerged from a bomb shelter and returned home together with their two-year-old daughter Tamar, they were shocked. Over 1000 Iranian drones had been launched toward Israel, and all but one were intercepted. That single drone penetrated Israel’s aerial defenses and disintegrated over a two-story building in the city of Beit Shean. Nitai is a yungerman in the kollel headed by Rav Lasry, the rov of Beit Shean. When his family heard the air raid siren that morning, they raced to the communal bomb shelter. After the siren, they returned home. Their table was already set for the Shabbos meal when another siren sounded, and they raced back to the bomb shelter. Everyone heard the drone buzzing overhead, and a few people did not manage to get into the shelter on time. Mere seconds after they entered the bomb shelter, a powerful explosion was heard; this was the sound of the drone blowing up overhead. The force of the blast was so great that they were certain that it had disintegrated above the bomb shelter. As it turned out, however, the drone had hit their home.
“It was a miracle,” Ateret related. “Had I not heard the Home Front Command’s warning, it might have been a terrible tragedy. The fact that the only drone that fell within Israel hit my home shows me that there is hashgocha from Above. Everything that occurs in our world is dictated in Shomayim. I feel that we have received a new lease on life because of this tremendous miracle.”
Since the destruction of their home, the family has been enveloped in warmth, love, and kindness from their neighbors in Beit Shean, who offered to provide for all of their needs. During the first days after the missile strike, the family stayed in a local guesthouse, and they will soon be relocated to a hotel in Teveria. Noam Jumaa, the mayor of Beit Shean, added, “A tremendous miracle happened for us. The residents of Beit Shean have displayed responsible behavior throughout the war, and when the moment of truth arrived, that responsibility turned out to be lifesaving. We are providing daily assistance to the families whose homes were damaged, and we are attempting to help them in every way.”
Even the tragedy in Beer Sheva was marked by a miracle within the calamity. Shimon Touboul, who represents Degel HaTorah on the Beer Sheva city council, revealed that a large gas tank at the building that was hit had miraculously survived the missile strike. Had the gas tank exploded, there could have been many more fatalities.
An Open Secret: Freed Terrorists Murder Again
At the beginning of this week, the Shin Bet arrested dozens of Palestinians who were on the verge of carrying out multiple terror attacks. Countless Jewish lives were undoubtedly saved by this operation, which was made possible thanks to a large quantity of intelligence information and the assistance of Arab collaborators who are willing to share information in exchange for money or benefits, or because they have been threatened. According to a spokesman for the Shin Bet, the terrorists taken into custody were part of an extensive Hamas terror infrastructure in Chevron, one of the largest to be uncovered in recent years. Over 60 terror activists were taken into custody, 22 weapons of various kinds were seized, and the Shin Bet discovered that some of the terrorists had been responsible for a shooting attack 15 years ago that claimed the lives of four Israelis. There were many indications that the group had been planning to carry out terror attacks in the immediate future.
The Shin Bet released an official statement detailing the events: “A Shin Bet investigation has determined that in the course of the terror infrastructure’s operation, senior Hamas officials in the Chevron area, most of them former inmates in Israeli prisons, worked to recruit, arm, and train additional Hamas operatives in the area to carry out shooting and explosive attacks against Israeli targets. It has also been determined that the members of this infrastructure carried out firearm training, gathered information on Israeli targets, and created and assembled explosive devices with the goal of perpetrating deadly attacks on behalf of Hamas in Yehuda, Shomron, and Israel. The Shin Bet, IDF, and Israel police arrested over 60 terrorists. Under questioning, the terrorists provided a large quantity of information that made it possible to thwart additional attacks and carry out more arrests. In the course of the investigation, 22 firearms of various kinds were confiscated, along with 11 fragmentation grenades and other weapons, as well as a large quantity of ammunition. In addition, an underground hideout was discovered that was used to store weapons and hide wanted individuals. The Shin Bet investigators determined that some of the subjects had been involved in various terror attacks in previous years. One terrorist was arrested who had participated in a shooting attack on August 31, 2010, at the Bnei Naim junction on Har Chevron, which took the lives of Yitzchok and Tali Aymes, Kochava Even Chaim, and Avishai Schindler. Other terrorists who were part of the cell responsible for the attack were taken into custody as well. In addition, a number of terrorists were arrested and charged with involvement in providing the weapons that were used in the terror attack at the Tunnels Checkpoint near Yerushalayim on November 16, 2023, in which Corporal Avrohom Patna was murdered.”
Allow me to direct your attention to one specific comment in the Shin Bet’s statement, which noted that most of the captured terrorists had previously been held in Israeli prisons. To be clear, these were terrorists who were previously behind bars and are now free. This leads us to the question of why they are free. Did they finish serving their sentences? I would venture to guess that they did not complete their sentences and instead were released in the course of various prisoner exchange deals. This is further evidence supporting the claims that terrorists who are freed from prison tend to murder again.
A senior Shin Bet official also made the following statement about the agency’s successful operation: “This was the largest and most extensive terror network that the Shin Bet succeeded in dismantling in Yehuda and Shomron in a decade. Most of the members of the terror network were previously held in Israeli prisons and were experienced with interrogations. The exposure of the infrastructure, which operated covertly while maintaining compartmentalization between the different cells, played a significant role in thwarting Hamas’s intentions to carry out major attacks in Israel.” This official slipped the same troubling statistic into his statement; in an effort to tout the Shin Bet’s accomplishment in exposing the terror network, he mentioned that most of the terrorists had previously been held in Israeli prisons. One also cannot overlook the fact that the Shin Bet’s official statement made a point of mentioning “Yehuda, Shomron, and Israel,” as if the former two locations are not part of Israel!
A Tragedy and a Moral Dilemma
As the weekend approached, the country was still reeling from the missile strike that killed four people in Beer Sheva. While Israel celebrated the destruction of the Iranian nuclear program and news of the ceasefire with Iran was beginning to arrive, we were suddenly hit with tragic news: Seven IDF soldiers, all in the same armored vehicle—a commander and six of his troops—had been killed. Every soldier’s death is a painful tragedy; the loss of seven soldiers at once was difficult to assimilate. The terrorist who murdered them raced up to the vehicle, climbed onto it, and threw an explosive inside; the soldiers did not stand a chance of surviving. To make matters worse, the vehicle contained explosive materials that caught fire as well. The explosion was extremely powerful.
The seven funerals last Wednesday and Thursday were heartrending. One of the murdered soldiers was an only child; another soldier, when he was told that he was needed in the reserves again, had announced, “I’ll go to the army even if I have to ride a scooter to get there!” Every one of the funerals was attended by a large crowd, and every one of the seven deaths added to the general sense of sorrow that is weighing on the country.
The IDF initially theorized that the terrorists had attached a large explosive to the outside of the vehicle occupied by the soldiers. However, when Hamas published a video of the attack, it was clear that the bomb was in the terrorist’s hands as he raced up to the vehicle and dropped it through an open hatch. The terrorist managed to escape from the scene and even to capture a video of the explosion, which destroyed the armored vehicle. It took a long time for the flames to be extinguished, and the ruined vehicle was towed back to Israel in accordance with protocol, both as evidence of the tragedy and to be examined for lessons to be derived for the future.
This terror attack took place in Khan Yunis, which was presumed to have been cleared of Hamas terrorists long ago. However, that assumption turned out to be the army’s weak point: Because of the significant amount of time that has passed, terrorists managed to return to the area and regain a foothold there. Every terrorist poses a danger to the IDF soldiers stationed in the area, who erroneously feel more secure.
The tragedy has drawn attention to another issue: the lack of air cover, or at least a significantly reduced level of support, for IDF troops. Aerial assistance, not just in the form of airstrikes but also in the form of continuous surveillance over the area where soldiers are operating, is critical for saving soldiers’ lives and detecting threats before the soldiers can be harmed. Pilots in the air can spot dangers and warn the soldiers or neutralize the threats from above, eliminating terrorists before they can open fire or carry out any other kind of attack.
This tragedy, along with others that preceded it, has fueled a passionate debate over whether the IDF is endangering soldiers for the sake of excessive humanitarianism. It is reported that the military prosecution instructed the army to limit operations that have the potential to cause the deaths of innocent Gazans, which they describe as “collateral damage.” This means that the army refrains from bombing buildings from the air if there is a concern that civilians inside it (or even next to it) may be killed, even if this forces soldiers to risk their lives by entering buildings that may be booby-trapped with explosives. In response to this concern, the military prosecution says that the soldiers should simply be cautious. Does that sound reasonable or logical to you? If you find it to be unreasonable, then I agree with you completely. But the judges and prosecutors seem to call the shots in this country, even if their judgment calls are totally unsound, especially at a time of war.
The Army Lies
A serious incident took place in a clash between young settlers and IDF soldiers this weekend near the Arab village of Malik in the Binyomin region. The conflict began when the soldiers arrived to evacuate a hilltop that had been settled by a group of Jewish youths, and the incident soon developed into an all-out conflict that included the use of live fire. Those bullets were fired not by the settler youths but by the soldiers. Of course, the soldiers claimed that they had felt that their lives were in danger, a claim that is hard to refute, but the IDF spokesman placed the army in a difficult position when he initially insisted that live bullets hadn’t been used. Being caught in a lie tends to place anyone at a disadvantage, and in this case that happens to be the army’s plight.
The settlers told the story as follows: “An IDF officer from the Binyomin sector arrived at a settlement point that was established in recent weeks on Har Chatzor, with the goal of evacuating in on Friday night. The officer emerged from his car and began firing live bullets over the heads of the shocked residents, threatening that he would kill them all. The incident escalated, and the soldiers began throwing massive numbers of gas grenades and stun grenades directly at the settlers, as well as opening fire again with live bullets. A 14-year-old boy was wounded by a bullet and left in moderate to serious condition; he was evacuated to Hadassah Har Hatzofim Hospital and admitted to the intensive care unit, where he was found to be suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper body, a fractured shoulder, and lung damage.”
This certainly sounds very bad, and the settlers categorically reject the IDF’s accusation that they engaged in violence and attempted to ram cars into the soldiers, strangle them, and throw stones at them.
The settlers’ version continues, “This incident began close to the beginning of Shabbos, when a group of Border Guard officers left the area after being stationed at the outpost, which was evacuated earlier in the day. The residents, who planned to return after Shabbos, received a report that Arabs were planning to torch the outpost, and they returned at the beginning of Shabbos instead. Around 10:00 p.m., a car was seen heading toward the hilltop with its lights off. Fearing that it was a hostile Arab vehicle, the residents set out toward it, but as they approached it, they realized that it was a jeep belonging to the battalion commander. The commander turned on his lights, emerged from the vehicle, and begin firing live bullets above the heads of the youths while screaming at them in Hebrew to lie on the ground. The boys raised their hands in fear and complied with his order, while the commander continued aiming his loaded weapon and laser pointer at them. The battalion commander then halted the live fire and began firing tear gas grenades from a launcher while screaming, ‘I will kill all of you!’ He was then caught on video making a phone call and threatening to kill everyone if the Border Guard did not show up to arrest the youths. Throughout this time, there was no physical violence on the part of the residents, who didn’t even resist arrest. Moreover, one of the residents was even filmed calming another resident who was placed in handcuffs and telling him, ‘Don’t fight with them. They want you to fight with them.’ Because of the reports of gunfire toward the residents, injuries at the settlement, and potential life-threatening danger, emergency services were called to the area, consisting of residents from nearby farms and other civilians. They, too, encountered the same massive, indiscriminate hails of gas and stun grenades.”
Violent Settlers or Hateful Soldiers?
Of course, the army painted a very different picture of the incident, claiming that the settlers went on a rampage and threw stones at the soldiers, and that they had no choice but to use force to suppress the riot. The IDF spokesman issued a statement on Shabbos, claiming that masked Jewish youths had thrown stones at a military jeep. In his initial statement, the IDF spokesman denied the use of live fire. It was only on motzoei Shabbos, in light of reports that the wounded youth was admitted to Hadaasah Har Hatzofim, that the army changed its version of the story.
In their initial account, the IDF claimed, “During the night [Friday night] IDF forces identified several Israeli civilians traveling in their cars toward an area that was part of a closed military zone, near the village of Malik in the Binyomin region. Soldiers were rushed to the area to disperse the gathering. When the IDF forces arrived, dozens of Israeli civilians threw stones at them and attacked the soldiers, including the battalion commander, with physical and verbal violence. In addition, the civilians damaged vehicles belonging to the security forces and attempted to ram them with cars. The security forces dispersed the gathering with riot control measures, and six Israeli civilians were arrested and transferred to the custody of the Israel police force. The IDF and the Israel police force condemn the use of violence against the security forces and will act with determination against any attempt to harm the security personnel who are fulfilling their duty to protect the citizens of Israel. The IDF and the Israel police force will continue focusing on maintaining security for civilians, along with enforcing the law and preventing illegal activity.”
The battalion commander in this account is presumably the same man who opened fire on the settlers. In the IDF’s second statement, which was released after the legal aid organization Honenu published a picture of the X-ray taken of the wounded boy’s injuries, the army claimed, “In a different area in this sector, rocks were thrown at a military vehicle near the site of the conflict with masked individuals from the outpost. The IDF forces responded with three warning shots. It is being examined whether there is any connection between the incident and the claims that an Israeli civilian was injured by a live bullet. The incident is being examined in all its aspects, including the warning shots.”
The claim that this incident happened “in a different area” is actually an attempt to cover up the fact that the IDF spokesman lied in his initial statement.
This incident has brought the tensions between the settlers and the IDF soldiers to record heights. Some of the settlers are extremists well, but some of the soldiers may well be leftists who despise right-wing settlers. These aren’t soldiers in their twenties; they are members of the reserves, and many are much older than the average young soldier. The commanders are certainly older and might well be ardent leftists. Incidents like this one are fairly common, but these events were far beyond the norm, and both sides have been hurling accusations at each other. When the settlers excoriated the army for coming to the site on Shabbos, the army responded that they evacuated the outpost on Friday and the settlers chose to return on Shabbos. The settlers did not dispute that fact, but they argued that it does not give the soldiers a justification for unrestrained violence. The IDF, for its part, has accused the settlers of throwing stones at the soldiers, but the settlers insist that that is a lie.
There is one incontrovertible fact that can be held against the army: the injury suffered by the young settler, who was treated by United Hatzolah paramedics at the scene before he was taken to the hospital in a mobile intensive care unit. An X-ray clearly shows the bullet in his shoulder, and multiple bullet casings were found at the site of the incident as well. In an even more absurd move, the police arrested the paramedic who treated the injured boy and another resident who helped transport him to the hospital. The two men were questioned and then released.
IDF Allegations Stoke Outrage
But this story isn’t over yet. Following the statement from the IDF spokesman, fierce condemnations of the “settler violence” were issued by the minister of defense, the prime minister, and the chief of staff. None of them were aware yet of the young man who had been wounded by live fire. When Shabbos ended, the settlers began their counterattack in the media, showing pictures, videos, and other testimonies that made it clear that the IDF’s claims of violent riots were grossly exaggerated, and that instead of the settler youths engaging in violence, the IDF soldiers had attacked them. The entire incident was caught on video.
After receiving the video evidence, the IDF provided no evidence to back up their contentions that the settlers had tried to ram the soldiers with cars or attacked them violently in any other way. They did not even produce a picture of the IDF vehicle that the soldier claimed was destroyed. In fact, the settlers posted their own picture of the vehicle that was allegedly destroyed, and it appeared to be in excellent condition. In briefings to news correspondents over the course of Shabbos, the IDF claimed that the settlers had tried to choke the battalion commander, had slashed the tires of his jeep, and had tried to run him over with a car. However, the army hasn’t provided a single shred of video evidence to back up these claims, nor have they provided any images of the alleged damage to the jeep. For that reason, no one believes their version of the story at all.
As is often the case, the tables were soon turned and the army found itself on the defensive. As I mentioned, the IDF spokesman was caught in a lie; after he initially pretended that the soldiers hadn’t used live bullets, the exposure of that lie evoked a wave of criticism. Yisroel Gantz, the head of the Binyomin Regional Council, met Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir at the site of the conflict and said to him, “The video evidence shows that the soldiers acted in an unacceptable fashion. This must be examined immediately. The army must investigate the shooting of the young man; the use of live fire against civilians is unacceptable. An incident that ends with a young boy being shot in the chest is very serious and cannot be allowed to pass in silence.”
Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich was equally outraged. “This incident on Friday night in Binyomin will be investigated and examined,” he said. “In the interim, what is clear is that the IDF opening live fire on Jewish civilians crosses a forbidden and dangerous red line, and there must be a thorough investigation and personal consequences. The army and the settlers are one. Anyone who raises a hand against the soldiers of the IDF is fighting against settlement, not for it. Nevertheless, firing live bullets at Jews is forbidden and dangerous. This incident must be the subject of a full independent investigation, the appropriate lessons must be learned, and those responsible must be brought to justice.”
In the interim, you can say a perek of Tehillim for the recovery of Assif Hillel ben Efrat.
“Back to Normal” Means Back to Attacking Chareidim
Do you remember the chaos in the government before the attack on Iran began? There was the aborted attempt to dissolve the Knesset, the late-night meetings between Netanyahu and Yuli Edelstein, the split within United Torah Judaism and the split within Agudas Yisroel as well, and the never-ending flow of news updates and commentary from every corner of the Knesset building, with much of the media placing the chareidi community squarely in its crosshairs. When Israel launched its attack on Iran, the circumstances forced a ceasefire of sorts. With air raid sirens blaring and missiles flying through the air, the enemies of the chareidi community temporarily fell silent, recognizing that it was not the right time to purvey their incitement and animosity. Why don’t they have the same reaction to the ongoing war in Gaza with the intolerable price that the country is paying in human lives? Unfortunately, this does not have the same impact on their ceaseless incitement. It is sad to see that the unity and cohesion that we experienced during those brief days of warfare could not be maintained.
The Israeli attack on Iran led to an American offensive as well, and the next step was a ceasefire. The result of that ceasefire turned out to be the renewal of the country’s battle against the chareidim. I was fairly certain that this would happen; when the guns and sirens fell silent, I predicted that we would witness the renewal of hostilities against the chareidim. I davened that my prediction would be wrong, but it has already come true. Last Thursday, for instance, a certain financial newspaper in Israel ran the following insidious headline: “Back to Normal: The Government Is Working to Transfer 100 Million Shekels to Chareidi Education.” Beneath that title appears a subheading: “The costly war with Iran has just ended, and the government is about to transfer 75 million shekels to the Bnei Yosef school network (of the Shas party) and 25 million shekels to Chinuch Atzmai (of United Torah Judaism). The reason: to make up for the loss of funding under the New Horizon program, which was blocked because of the schools’ failure to meet the requirements for the core curriculum.” The article makes a point of claiming that the funding is meant to safeguard the government’s political survival at a time when national defense requires a much greater outlay of funds.
There is much that can be said to argue with the writer of this article and his premise. First of all, even if the funding is indeed meant to compensate the chareidi schools for their exclusion from the New Horizon program, there is an important question that hasn’t been asked: Were the funds earmarked for the school networks through a proper legal process? If not, then the budget transfer will never happen. And if the process was legal and aboveboard (and the article does mention something called the Gefen Plan), then what could be wrong with it? Even more to the point, why is government funding for chareidim a problem during wartime, while no one has any objection to the funding for any other government ministry or any individual or entity? The article draws a link between funding for chareidim and the war for one reason only: to incite against the chareidim and to drum up hatred for them. Besides, is a chareidi student or teacher somehow less deserving than their secular counterparts? Why should the chareidim be denied government funding for their schools while the secular education system faces no funding cuts at all?
Even the headline’s tone is spiteful and venomous. The writer is essentially proclaiming, “The war has ended, and the thieves are back. It’s time for the chareidim to rob the state coffers again!”
Personally, I would draft a different headline of my own, which would state, “Back to Normal: The war with Iran has just ended, and the toxic agitators are crawling out of their holes once again.”
Hatred Blinds
It is always interesting to observe the folly of those who prattle endlessly about various topics, priding themselves on knowledge and wisdom that they do not possess. Media commentators spinning their wheels in the studios lectured us about the tense conversation in which Trump warned Netanyahu against attacking Iran and potentially torpedoing the country’s talks with the United States. “There will not be an attack,” the pundits proclaimed pretentiously, just as the engines of the air force jets were beginning to heat up for their trip to Iran. By the time the newspapers hit the newsstands on Friday, containing their self-assured analyses of the situation, the pilots had already returned home. The same conceited confidence in their analysis of the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu led many journalists to conclude that America was not going to attack Iran. The news pundits, including generals and dime-a-dozen experts, haven’t even blushed.
It can be saddening to observe the blinding effects of hatred. One can clearly demonstrate the truth to the parties to a conflict, but each of them will remain stubbornly entrenched in his own position. This is part of human nature: When a person has made up his mind about something, whether it is good or bad, he can be so obstinate that nothing, not even an incontrovertible fact, will budge him. Korach was an early example of this phenomenon, and Mayor Yonah Yahav of Haifa is an example from contemporary times. Yahav was present and witnessed chareidi volunteers rushing to save victims from the rubble after a missile strike, he saw a United Hatzolah paramedic rescuing infants from a ruined building, and he witnessed MDA paramedics wearing tzitzis rushing to treat the wounded, but his view of the chareidim did not change by a single iota. These diligent workers and the rest of their community were dismissed by Yahav as worthless idlers, regardless of the evidence of his own eyes. I cannot help but be reminded of the story of Reuven, Shimon, and the donkey. Reuven owned a donkey, and Shimon once asked him if he could borrow it for a few hours. “I am so sorry,” Reuven said. “My donkey died yesterday.”
Suddenly, the sound of a donkey braying reached their ears; the beast of burden was clearly very much alive. Shimon looked at Reuven reproachfully and demanded, “How can you lie to me?”
Reuven looked offended. “Do you believe the donkey over me?” he exclaimed in a tone of indignation.
My son Reb Aharon Yeshaya was a chavrusa of Rav Aryeh Finkel for many years. Rav Aryeh once said to him, “Chazal teach us that the posuk ‘toleh eretz al blimah—He hangs the earth on nothingness’ refers to a person who is bolem piv, who restrains his mouth and keeps his silence, at a time of strife. But during the quarrel between Korach and Moshe Rabbeinu, who would be expected to sustain the world by remaining silent? For an evil person who sided with Korach, it was obvious that he should have been silent, since anything he might have said in support of Korach would be wrong! And a tzaddik who sided with Moshe Rabbeinu would certainly have been correct in anything he said! Clearly,” Rav Aryeh concluded, “this means that when there is a dispute, even a person who is righteous and speaks the truth is expected to remain silent.”
The Yungerman’s Worry
There is much more that I could write about this week. The Jewish community in Iran is living in fear as the regime has begun persecuting them, sparking concern throughout the world for their well-being. The police recently received a ringing slap in the face from the Supreme Court, which ruled that Ari Rosenfeld (remember him?) is permitted to return to the job he held before his arrest. Moreover, the police determined that the window in the Supreme Court building was broken before the right-wing demonstration, a finding that dealt a decisive blow to the liberal agitators who sought to use the broken window to vilify the right. There is also plenty to write about politics (such as the apparent collapse of Yesh Atid), about the impeachment of Ayman Oudeh, and, of course, about the redoubled efforts to pass a new draft law. But this column is long enough already.
But let me conclude with a couple of amusing stories about two kollel yungeleit in Eretz Yisroel dealing with different parts of the fallout of the war with Iran.
Our first yungerman was feeling tense and confused in the days when the air raid sirens were repeatedly sounding. Yes, he understood that emunah and bitachon should have kept him calm, but he also knew that when the middas hadin is in force, one cannot be too confident or complacent. At the same time, many important notifications were being transmitted through cell phones, whether to notify the citizens of an impending missile strike or to sound the all clear when it became safe to leave their bomb shelters. With only a kosher cell phone that wasn’t always fully functional, he did not receive these notifications. One day, he called a friend with a request: “When you get a notification that it is safe to leave the bomb shelter after a siren, can you please let me know?”
His friend was puzzled. “I thought that you don’t have a safe room in your apartment, and your building doesn’t even have a bomb shelter,” he said.
“That’s true,” the other yungerman admitted.
“Then why do you want to know when it’s safe to leave the shelter? What difference does it make to you if you aren’t in a shelter anyway?”
“It makes a difference because I need to know when I can stop reciting Tehillim,” the yungerman replied.
The yungerman who is the subject of my second story was tense and anxious as well, albeit for a different reason. When Israel’s airspace was closed and all flights entering and exiting the country were canceled, he became quite agitated and began making daily inquiries in kollel about when the flights would resume. For some reason, he seemed to take a greater interest in incoming flights than in those that departed the country. This yungerman wasn’t much of a traveler; in fact, he had never left Eretz Yisroel in his life, and no one understood exactly why this issue was troubling him. Finally, someone asked him, “What is the matter? Why are you so interested in the flights?”
“Well, you see, my young children have been practically climbing the walls, and I had to buy them a trampoline,” he said.
“But what does that have to do with the flights?” they asked.
“The trampoline came with a pump to inflate it, but it turned out to be an incorrect fit,” he continued.
His friends continued looking at him quizzically. “And how is that connected to the flights?” they asked again.
“My wife ordered a new pump from overseas, and it is stuck in chutz laaretz,” he replied ruefully.
