ONE MIRACLE AND ANOTHER MIRACLE AND ANOTHER …

Dozens of times a day, you can see Hashem directing the potentially deadly missiles and making them land in open areas or in places where there were people just minutes before. * Between tall buildings, near gas balloons, near a preschool, in the doorway of a shul. These are only some of the places where rockets have landed and, thank G-d, caused no harm to man.

 “A few days ago I gave a shiur where another rav also spoke, someone from the Musar school. He explained to the audience of simple working people that they needed to strengthen their observance of Torah and mitzvos because the miracles use up our merits. When I got up to speak after him, I said that the difference between miracles and nature is only a matter of degree and quantity. Even that which we call nature is one long miracle and the miracles that take place every day become natural to us. So, I said, don’t worry about your merits; just strengthen your faith with joy.”

R’ Moshe Pizem, shliach in Sderot, told me the following. For the past thirteen years he has been living on the front lines and he can speak of the enormity of the miracles that take place in his city as well as in other southern cities and the center of the country, every single day. The leaders of the country, even when they are not religiously observant, refer to G-d when they see the miracles.

I visited cities in the south and center of the country in order to collect miracle stories and stories of divine providence. After concluding my research which included many meetings and interviews, we discovered that there is hardly a person in the shelled cities that does not have a story of miraculous divine providence.

“We must tell of the open miracles taking place around us,” said a Lubavitcher officer who was called up with his unit and posted in Kibbutz Erez near the Gaza Strip.

“I divide it into three main categories of miracles. First, Hashem strengthened the hearts of the Hamas terrorists which drew the Israeli leadership into a ground war it did not want. Today, after fourteen days of fighting and exposing dozens of terror tunnels that the terrorists worked on for years, we understand the enormity of the miracle. It is frightening to think what would have happened if everything would have been left alone.

“Second, that the war began when the hostile international media was preoccupied with the shooting down of the passenger plane in the Ukraine. The world focused on that instead of on us.

“Third, in recent months, a president was elected in Egypt who is on the outs with Hamas and who wants Hamas to fall. His predecessors helped Hamas whether by looking away from what they did or by actively helping them. The present government is fighting Hamas. Simultaneously, every country in the area is immersed in civil war: Syria, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, and now Jordan is getting nervous.”

DR. SHALTIEL’S PERSONAL MIRACLE

The military preparedness began a month and a half ago with the kidnapping of the three teenagers by Hamas terrorists. The army, under orders from the government, began Operation Return Our Boys with thousands of soldiers searching for them throughout Yehuda and Shomron.

Following the arrests of numerous Hamas terrorists, including some who had been released in the Shalit exchange, Hamas terrorists in Gaza began shooting missiles and rockets with increasing frequency at southern Israeli cities. Arabs in Eretz Yisroel also began throwing stones and trying to undermine the civil order.

For a few days, the police and the entire government stood impotently by in the face of the rioters who caused much property damage, and it was only through a miracle that no lives were lost, though some were injured. One of them, Dr. Shlomo Shaltiel, a Lubavitcher from Ramat Yishai who spends much of his time in hafatza, had his life saved by a miracle. 

He was on his way to Natzrat Ilit when on the way a gang of Arabs stopped his car and smashed his windows with rocks. His windshield sustained direct hits and was no longer functional. It was miraculous that he got out of there without a scratch.

Michal Chaya Malka sustained injuries but her life was miraculously saved. She is a Lubavitcher girl from Afula who was on a bus from Kfar Chabad to Afula. The bus she was on was attacked by a hail of rocks and one rock hit her head.

“I was sleeping on the bus when I suddenly woke to a boom. I immediately felt a pain in my head and thought it was either a terrorist or an accident, and that the pain in my head was just from the thrust but then I touched my face and my hand was full of blood. I knew I had been hit.

“The driver tried to get out of there quickly. I was still conscious despite the pain in my head which confused me somewhat. At the Megido Junction an ambulance was waiting for me which took me to the hospital where I was treated and released.”

SDEROT – MIRACLES OF ALL SORTS

Sderot is a city which sustained and continues to sustain the most hits in this war. For thirteen years now, the residents of the city serve as hostages of the terrorist organizations. Along with the endless suffering and fear due to life under threat of missile attack, the residents see numerous miracles.

“In the middle of last week,” said R’ Moshe Pizem, “we brought the singer Ariel Zilber here to cheer people up. A half hour later there was a successful interception and shrapnel from a Kassam missile fell into the Chabad house yard.

“There was another big miracle here. There is a woman who runs a daycare center in her house with seven children. When she heard the Red Alert, she quickly took the children to the protected area. One second later, a rocket landed in the living room where the children had been playing just moments before. There are only fifteen seconds that residents of Sderot have from when the siren sounds to when the rocket lands.”

R’ Pizem talks about everyday miracles: missiles that land in houses whose occupants just left, missiles that land on populated houses but don’t explode, or those that land in yards or between houses or meters away from where people are congregated. 

Then there was the miracle that took place at the beginning of the present war when a missile landed on a paint factory in Sderot and burned it down.

“Two weeks ago on Shabbos afternoon, in the middle of Mincha, we heard a Red Alert and then a big explosion. People are generally curious to see where the missile landed and the resulting destruction. But this time, I asked them to stay and nobody went outside. Toward Maariv, during the niggunim, one of the children went up to the balcony on the second floor and came back shouting, ‘There is a big fire!’ and everyone went up to the balcony. The sight we saw was frightening. There were huge flames and thick black smoke in all directions.

“I only realized the miracle that occurred on Motzaei Shabbos when I went to the area of the factory. A missile had landed directly on the paint factory and burned it down. The factory is full of flammable materials which is what increased the smoke and flames. Barrels of paint and sparks flew all over the place. The entire place was consumed and people were in shock over the miracle. If the rocket had landed at the same time the next day, a weekday, what would have happened to the forty employees who work there – it’s frightening to think about it.

“The manager of the fire department whom I met told me that after the firemen extinguished the fire, they saw the enormity of the miracle. The fire consumed only the factory and did not spread to houses and other factories in the area. Barrels of paint flew in the air and landed in yards and for some reason they were extinguished instead of carrying the flames to other locations. People said that when the fire began they saw balls of fire flying from the factory.”

R’ Pizem says that many people suggest they leave the city and take a break, but although he appreciates their offers he has to turn them all down because he is on shlichus:

“There are many old people and people who live alone and are afraid to leave their houses. We buy food for them. How can an old person walking down the street run to a protected area within fifteen seconds? We also get many phone calls from religious soldiers stationed in the area and we provide them with wine and challa for Shabbos.”

Despite all the open miracles I ask R’ Pizem whether there aren’t times he’s ready to crack. Where does he get the courage and strength to go on?

He stopped for a few moments and then told me about an answer he opened to from the Rebbe in the Igros Kodesh in the previous round of fighting, an answer that is always with him.

“I was in the middle of a shiur when a missile suddenly fell near the Chabad house and shook the entire building. Without any preparations I asked the Rebbe for a bracha and opened a volume of Igros Kodesh. There was a letter there in which the Rebbe writes that Dovid HaMelech says in T’hillim, ‘even when I go in the valley of death, I fear no evil for You are with me,’ and he refers to every Jew. That’s the letter that I take with me, so even if missiles fall and we feel we are in the valley of death, we are not afraid because Hashem is with us.”

ASHKELON – BENDING DOWN AND PICKING UP MIRACLES

Another city which sustained many hits is Ashkelon, which is on the coast near the Gaza Strip. The many shluchim here are very busy and have many miracles stories to tell.

“One day, a missile fell in the yard of the house of our family doctor. Her daughter, who just a few moments before was on the second floor, entered the protected room and her life was saved,” said R’ Uri Cohen, a shliach.

A big miracle happened with a sixteen year old boy who was seriously injured and whose life was miraculously saved:

“There was a siren and this boy, who was on his way to the barber, was in the middle of the business district and he ran to find shelter. The Iron Dome did not neutralize this missile and it fell in the center of the city near where the boy had taken shelter. A piece of the missile hit him in the chest and he was seriously wounded. Yet he got up and walked a few steps to the middle of the road where he fell. 

“People who saw him called for help. At the hospital they found that shrapnel had entered his lung. He was operated on and his life was saved. The big miracle is that the shrapnel could just as easily have entered his heart or brain. This is in addition to the fact that despite being seriously injured, he got up the strength to leave the place he was hiding in. If he would have remained there, nobody would have noticed him and called for help. This saved his life.”

“Last Sunday night we heard a siren and went to the protected room. After a few seconds we heard a big explosion,” said a resident from Ashkelon, Mrs. Dafna Cohen. “Sadly, we are experienced and this time it was really close. We knew something terrible was happening right near us though for some reason, it was quiet after the explosion. There was no smoke and no fire. We remained in the shelter and after half an hour my son volunteered to go out. The police came quickly together with members of the Home Front Command and they found a big crater in the earth between the buildings.

“Since it was nighttime, they decided to wait until morning so they could neutralize the missile by daylight. In the morning, my brother who works for the police called me and said, ‘You don’t know what a miracle happened in your neighborhood. If the missile had not fallen and gotten stuck in the ground but had landed in an open area it would have been a very different ending.’ 

“A few minutes later everyone was asked to enter their shelters and the police closed off streets. After a while we heard an explosion. The sappers had neutralized the explosive material in the missile.”

According to R’ Cohen, people realize that despite the unpleasantness of the war, Hashem is doing miracles for them and they are uplifted by this. “This is what people are talking about, that there is a Creator who runs the world. This week, someone called me who was looking for a place to hold a bris mila for his son. He said the Chabad house is the safest place. Of course, we were happy to oblige. The bris began at eight and ended at ten. Before and after the bris there were sirens but throughout the bris it was quiet.”

According to R’ Cohen, only someone who lives in the city can appreciate the magnitude of the miracles. “When you say rockets hit open areas, you have to understand that they are including the beaches as well as areas that are meters away from the city. Yesterday, a rocket landed between two multi-story buildings. It was incredible; a place densely populated and the missile landed in the few meters between the buildings!”

The Chabad house that he runs intensified its work with residents with a special emphasis on t’fillin:

“There is a store near the Chabad house and when there’s a siren, the manager of the store comes to us. He claims it’s the most protected shelter. We visit the hospital and meet soldiers who were wounded in the war. There are many places that the army closed to civilians but we go wherever we can and bring a message of encouragement and spiritual chizuk.”

ASHDOD – THE ENORMOUS MIRACLE AT THE GAS STATION AND WITH A MAN’S EYE

Ashdod is one of the big cities in the south of the country which has sustained many missile attacks during this war. This city will be remembered for the big miracle that happened there when a missile landed on a gas station and miraculously only one person was hurt. He was first described as seriously injured but then his condition stabilized and improved. 

“The story with the gas station is the miracle story of the war in this city,” said R’ Tamir Ben Kish, a Lubavitcher in Ashdod.

“The manager of the gas station heard the siren and with great presence of mind rushed to turn off the feeder lines from the storage tank under the ground of the station. The missile landed on the gas station and damaged a gas tanker truck and caused a big fire, but you can imagine what would have happened if the flames had reached the fuel storage tanks.”

The damaged gas tanker truck, which was carrying 35,000 liters of fuel, did not explode despite the close proximity of the rocket blast which set it on fire.

Even the head of the Yesh Atid party, Yair Lapid, who is not known for his fondness for faith in miracles, publicized the following announcement: “There is still 100,000 liters of fuel under the ground; it could have ended much worse. Boruch Hashem it did not end much worse.” Also senior officers in the Home Front Command said that morning that it was an open miracle and that it could have hurt many more people.

R’ Tamir says that he recently moved to another section of the city, and as soon as he arrived a rocket landed that did not explode, one meter from the gas balloons of one of the neighbors. “It wasn’t reported in the media, but do you realize what miracles are taking place here? We are living one big miracle. If the gas balloons would have exploded, I don’t want to think how many injured there would have been. Another open miracle that took place at the beginning of the war was when a Grad rocket landed directly on a car and burned it entirely. Just seconds before, a family was sitting there that did not hear the siren. They parked the car and when they entered the building where they live, they heard an explosion. The car went up in flames.”

When a rocket landed on another gas station, Shlomo Kum was hurt. He was taken immediately to the hospital where he described the miracle he experienced:

“On Friday, I went as I always do to fill up at the gas station in Ashdod. The siren sounded, and I headed in the direction of the protected area in a cafe which was packed with people. I stood near the wall. We heard a mighty boom and I felt a cut under my eye from a piece of shrapnel as well as strong ringing in my ears. I was quickly taken to the emergency room of Kaplan hospital and from there to the operating room in order to remove the shrapnel. During the operation they discovered that the shrapnel had penetrated my jaw and broken the bone and reached a millimeter and a half away from my eye. They removed the shrapnel and miraculously, no irreparable harm was done to my eye.”

“People are talking about miracles,” said Tamir who runs a business that sells Japanese food. “I meet with people and from all of them I hear about big miracles. Just yesterday they publicized a video in the media of a camera posted on a building that photographed the landing of a Grad rocket between two buildings, and this happens regularly. A meter in either direction and the building would have sustained a hit. There is no question that Hashem is protecting us.”

GAN YAVNE – BETWEEN THE PRESCHOOL AND THE SHUL

North of Ashdod is Gan Yavne. Due to the expanded range of the rockets it too has become a target of the terror organizations. When we spoke with the shliach, R’ Shneur Kurant, he said:

“The Home Front Command built a public protected room that we visit every day. We put t’fillin on with soldiers and infuse them with emuna. There is a soldier who told me that he does not believe in a higher power but only in his own strength. Today, this soldier puts on t’fillin.”

Plenty of rockets have landed on Gan Yavne and its environs while dozens of others were shot down by the Iron Dome.

“On Friday, one landed in our neighborhood between a preschool and a shul. It happened right before Shabbos and the windowpanes in the shul all shattered and shards flew all over. I don’t want to think of what would have happened if the missile had landed shortly afterward while many people were in the shul for Kabbalas Shabbos and their children played outside.”

Yair Shalom and his five year old son were miraculously saved, as only minutes before they had been in a nearby playground. The family lives in Ashdod and they came to get away from the sirens and to stay with the grandmother. The siren went off while they were on the grounds where the shul stands. Three people went into shock. A woman was injured lightly by glass in her foot and was treated on the spot.

“When the siren sounded, I grabbed the boy and began running in our flip-flops toward the house,” said Shalom. “As I ran, my son said he saw the interceptors overhead. The second we entered the bomb shelter we heard a boom. The Home Front people say that we need to lie down on the ground to protect ourselves instead of trying to run because there are 45 seconds to reach a protected place, but I decided to run for it. If I had lain down on the ground, we wouldn’t be talking now! That’s how we were saved. I must say the HaGomel bracha.”

His son said, “When we heard the siren we rushed to the protected area and saw the Iron Dome above us. I wasn’t scared. Then I saw the destruction of the shul and that was sad.”

“The shul sustained a lot of damage, all the windows were broken,” said Shalom. “About 20-30 meters from the shul was a car whose window was broken. Near it was a preschool that sustained most of the hit. The missile did tremendous damage, and it is miraculous that it wasn’t during school hours. It’s also a miracle that more people did not go to shul when it happened since the t’filla began at 7:20.”

About 300 people come to the shul every day but this time, there was only Tzvika Moshe the Shamash who entered the protected area. “The windows were demolished,” he said. “The shards penetrated the study area and everything was full of glass, but nobody was here.”

At the preschool, which was empty, heavy damage was caused to the walls, to the circuit box and the gas balloon. The firemen who came noticed that there was a leak from the balloon and cleared the room to prevent any combustion. Moshe Amar, the head trainer in the firefighters’ academy and A resident of Gan Yavne who arrived with his firemen, said, “A big miracle happened here. If the gas balloon would have exploded, it would have made the walls collapse.”

Whoever you meet in Gan Yavne will tell you about miracles. The shluchim are busy day and night fortifying the spiritual walls of the city. In a small place like Gan Yavne where everyone knows one another, R’ Kurant gets phone calls from parents whose children are drafted in the war against Hamas. 

“Just a few minutes ago, I finished a two hour conversation with one of the mekuravos. Her son, who is fighting in the Golani brigade, is in Shejaiya and some of the fallen soldiers were his close friends. Of course she’s worried and it’s up to us to find the words with which to comfort and encourage her.”

THE MIRACLE OF THE MASHGIACH IN THE CABBAGE FIELD

We cannot ignore the incredible phenomenon in which hundreds of rockets and missiles are shot every day from Gaza meant to strike at Jews, G-d forbid, and Boruch Hashem, time after time, we are witness to miracles. Entering the shelter and obeying orders from security forces are, in many cases, part of the miracles.

When you look through the media coverage you find that the terminology the reporters themselves use is the language of miracles. The phrase, “Miraculously, there were no injured” is heard more and more by the reporters. For example, on 6 Tammuz at 8:30 in the morning, a Kassam rocket directly hit a daycare center in Sderot while the children were present. 

Miracles happen daily in nearby border settlements too.

A family from Shaar HaNegev was saved when they went to Eilat for a break from the tension and the ongoing attacks. The family was told that their house was hit by a mortar so they returned to their home on the yishuv. That was when they saw the magnitude of the miracle. The mortar exploded in the children’s room. If the children would have been in their room at the time of the explosion, the results would have been tragic. Thank G-d, the attack ended with no injuries as in hundreds of other such instances. Another mortar attack hit another part of the yishuv and there too, there were no injuries, only a lot of structural damage.

On Sunday of this week, a miracle occurred for a Belzer Chassid, R’ Yisroel Breish. He is the mashgiach in the fields in the south of the country. An hour after he left a cabbage field over which he is the mashgiach, the owner of the hothouse called him and exclaimed emotionally, “You had an enormous miracle! A few minutes ago, a missile landed where you were standing. The huge explosion caused a fire and you were saved!”

BEER SHEVA – MIRACLE ON ALTERNATING FLOORS

Even in Beer Sheva, a city which sustained the fewest rockets, the residents have seen open miracles. When 77 year old Shalom Shitrit woke up that day, a surprise awaited him in his storage room – remnants of a rocket which fell on the city created havoc.

“Friday night there were sirens but we don’t have a shelter. We heard a powerful boom, but it was dark and we couldn’t see what happened.”

It was only the next day when Shalom went to get something from the storage room that he discovered the mess. “It made a hole in the roof,” he said. “If it had fallen inside the house, I don’t want to think what would have happened.”

“Last Thursday night, when we were in the middle of learning the D’var Malchus, we heard two sirens,” said R’ M. M. Yisraeli. “After a minute we heard the hits and five minutes later we heard reports. A missile had fallen forty meters from a new building which is still not fully populated. The miracle was incredible. The intensity of the blast caused a lot of damage to the third and fifth floors, two floors which had nobody living there yet.”

OTHER MIRACLES

When speaking of miracles, we see that they occur not only in missiles and rockets landing in ways that don’t injure people, but also in terrorist attempts that were foiled.

One of those attacks which were foiled was when Intelligence forces managed to discover the existence of a tunnel and prepared an ambush. At four in the morning, they saw five terrorist gunmen coming out of a tunnel. When the terrorists realized they had been spotted, they tried going back into the tunnel but were attacked from the air.

“Presumably, they were trying to reach the nearby kibbutz and perpetrate an attack there or a kidnapping,” said one of the commanders in the area. “Their attempt was foiled. This was a significant achievement, since otherwise we would have woken up in the morning to find terrorists inside the kibbutz.”

That was not the only attempt, as on the morning of writing this article, more tunnels were discovered with terrorists emerging. Unfortunately, while engaging with the terrorists, there were IDF casualties, but if they hadn’t identified them in time, the tragedy could have been a lot greater.

Most recently, we had Egypt helping us eliminate terror threats. Egyptian soldiers killed a terrorist who was running to the Kerem Shalom border crossing, apparently planning to blow himself up at the crossing, where IDF soldiers check goods going into Gaza.

In addition, the Egyptian officials said, Egyptian soldiers destroyed a vehicle loaded with Grad rockets that were set to be fired at Israel, and two terrorists were killed. Besides killing terrorists near the Israeli border, Egyptian soldiers also killed several terrorists deeper in Sinai.

As believing Jews we constantly remember that ultimately, “If Hashem does not protect the city, the guard watches in vain.” It is gratifying to see a glimmer of the fulfillment of prophecies of Yemos HaMoshiach of the nations doing our work for us.

The Rebbe, in his sichos, importunes us to publicize miracles. We need to thank and laud Hashem for the chesed He constantly does for us. I will conclude with what the Rebbe said in 5751, when Scud missiles landed in Eretz Yisroel. The Rebbe quoted the Midrash about the Jews being frightened and how Hashem says: My children, don’t be scared. Everything I do, I do only for your sake. The time of your redemption has arrived!

MIRACLES EVERYWHERE

A typical day of miracles in one of the first days of the war:

Sinai: 7 Egyptian civilians were killed and 22 injured by a wayward rocket which exploded in Northern Sinai near the Israeli border. From heaven they showed us the power of one rocket when it lands among people.

Gaza: After massive petitions to disconnect Gaza from electricity proved fruitless, Hashem cut 50,000 Gazan residents from electricity due to one of their own rockets hitting a high tension wire.

Beer Sheva: A rocket landed in a soccer field right after a large group of boys played there. Elsewhere, a rocket landed right near a gas balloon that did not explode.

Rishon L’Tziyon: An interceptor Iron Dome missile landed about thirty centimeters away from a stockpile of six gas balloons and did not explode.

Eshkol Regional Council – A rocket landed and created a crater in the middle of a kitchen of a private home a few seconds after the members of the household left the room.

Shaar HaNegev – The girls had just left to “air out” and a missile landed in their room.

In a yishuv near Yerushalayim – A rocket landed on a balcony of a house and did not explode.

Cholon – A missile missed a boy by a quarter of a second.

Nes Tziyona – A missile landed in the middle of a busy highway and there were no injuries.

Tel Aviv – A large piece of a rocket landed in a gas station near the pump.

Ashkelon – A missile landed in an abandoned factory.

Ashdod – A missile landed in the center of an empty mall.

Netivot – A missile hit a yard of a building with a preschool which was empty at the time.

Beer Sheva and the South – Missiles keep on landing in open areas … open areas … open areas … how many open areas are there in a country full of crowded residential areas? Damage to a car. Damage to a road. Trauma victim. Injury from running to a shelter. This is after nearly two weeks (of this writing) of over 2000 rockets!

***

Find me one other place in the world where they could send over 100 missiles at a crowded population without any casualties. We must thank Hashem for the miracles each day. We cannot get used to them. We are a protected nation. “A thousand will fall from your side and ten thousand from your right and will not approach you.”

SOLDIERS ON TWO FRONTS

Numerous Chabad Chassidim are among those called up to the army, and along with their military duties they also carry out the Rebbe’s horaos. One of them is R’ Uri Shachar, shliach to Dimona. Even on the base where he is serving, he keeps up with Mivtza T’fillin which he does every Friday. He sets up an improvised t’fillin stand with a sign that says: T’fillin Stand – In the Talmud it says that the mivtza of donning t’fillin makes our enemies fearful … “and all the nations of the earth will see the name of G-d is called upon you,” these are the t’fillin.

Another shliach, R’ Chaim Rivkin, shliach in Rishon L’Tziyon, was stationed with his combat unit near Kibbutz Erez. He said that that his shlichus, which takes place every day of the year in Rishon L’Tziyon, did not stop but was moved to the kibbutz area. “We have already set up a makeshift all-purpose shul for the first time in the kibbutz history. We hope it will remain even after the war is over and we all return safely home.”

THE REBBE SAYS

A pair of shluchim, who work in one of the cities in the center of the country, opened to an amazing answer in the Igros Kodesh about the security situation. It was the wife of the shliach who asked the question. They do not have a protected room in their house and when they hear a siren there is no shelter. Her question was whether they should move for the duration of the war to her parents’ house.

The answer was in volume 7, p. 161:

Regarding your question about moving from … I don’t think so at all … aside from not knowing which place is safer, it would seem that in the near future we will have “fulfilled our obligation” with scares alone. Since this is the case, fear is something dependent on will, there is the choice not to be afraid and to be confident in Hashem’s kindnesses, unwarranted kindness, so that there won’t be any aggravation, G-d forbid.