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Chanukah: G-d Fights Our Wars - Rabbi Benzion Shafier
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Follow us: https://www.hidabroot.com https://www.youtube.com/@Hidabrootcom https://www.instagram.com/hidabroot_global https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbCYZjl1CYoa4ulQIK2q The Chanukah lights remind us of the miracles that occurred to the Jews thousands of years ago. What relevance does the message of Chanukah have to us today? Watch Rabbi Shafier’s inspirational Chanukah message. For more inspiring content: @Hidabrootcom
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Transcript
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on Kaneka we light the candles
commemorating a victory that happened
thousands of years ago we say the words
you fought their battle you judge their
judgments you took their Revenge you put
the mighty in the hands of the weak the
many in hands of the few and the concept
of Kaneka and certainly lighting the
manura is for us to remember those
times and often time when you think
about that I think we have the sense of
I don't know thousands of years ago how
does it relate to me how do I feel it
how do I sense that God is active and
present in my world may maybe
historically back then but do I see it
today and what relevance does the
message of Kaneka have to us when we
live in such a vastly different world
and I'd like to share with you something
that I believe sheds tremendous light on
this very issue you see within most of
our lifetime and if you're younger
certainly within the past 50 years we
have experienced one of the greatest
Miracles that has ever been brought to
humanity and a miracle that's so
astonishing that if you step back with
open eyes you have to say it is
inexplicable June
1967 the small little nation of Israel
was surrounded by Major Arab populations
major Arab Powers there were 3 million
Jews living in Israel at the time and
100 million Arabs but besides the five
large Nations that attacked it was the
entire gathered might of the Arab nation
that decided to finally put an end to
this Scourge put an end to this Jewish
problem and their plan was simple that
plan was clear Drive the Jews into the
sea and it was a declaration of war but
it wasn't a declaration of war with any
end other than Jewish blood annihilation
of the Jewish people and you have to
appreciate what the odds of victory for
the Arabs was
dunam Arab land to every one dunam one
small part Israeli land you're talking
about five powerful armies we think
about these Arabs as well I don't know
some hashish smoking turban wearing
fellows the Egyptian Legion
were carefully trained Syria's Air Force
was carefully trained prior to
1967 it was a very dangerous situation
for Israel to shoot down an Egyptian or
Syrian plane not because of the
Egyptians or the syrians but because
almost every one of them potentially
might be manned by a Soviet pilot the
USSR devoted incredible amounts of
resources money time and expertise in
training the Egyptian training the
Syrian forces and they were highly
trained crack
troops outspending the little state of
Israel by ratio of 4 to1 every year from
1948 to
1967 I was a little boy in grade school
at the time and I remember that when war
was declared when the Sixth Day War
began in my school they began Gathering
bed
sheets the administration asked each
child to go go home and bring bed sheets
to help the war effort you may wonder
why bed sheets because the Israelis as
well as the American Jews supporting
understood that there were to be so many
injuries that there's no way that the
Israeli hospitals could have enough bed
sheets enough linen to care for all of
the wounded and according to any normal
assessment it was to be a massacre of
incredible
proportions interestingly enough the war
was not won in six days really it was
won in six hours in the very first six
hours of the war the entire Egyptian Air
Force was destroyed wiped out without
air support there was no way they could
wage battle as they wanted to but it's
interesting to note because Time
Magazine ran an article after the war
describing the destruction
of the Egyptian Air Force Egypt and
Israel are not far apart and Egypt was
well aware of the fact that Israel might
just bomb their Air Force every Egyptian
Hangar which contained an Egyptian plane
had a decoy hanger constructed next to
it so even if the Israelis were to bomb
the hangers they had a one in two chance
of getting the hanger that actually
contained the plane whereas may be
getting the decoy but by creating a
Decoy for every actual hanger housing a
plane the Egyptians knew that there was
at best a 50% chance of hitting after
the war they analyzed almost every bomb
dropped on the Egyptian hangers fell on
the hangers that contained the planes
and almost every decoy hanger was left
untouched and if you study the events of
the war in six days not only did we win
we vanquished foes that were so mighty
so outnumbering us so outp powering us
that it's beyond
astonishing and just as an illustration
West Point which is the American highest
academic Military Academy gave its
senior class A Thesis project now these
were the seniors these had these were
already soldiers who had spent four
years in school and they were given a
thesis project and right after the six
day War the professor gave the
graduating class the project of planning
the taking of the goal on Heights he
gave them access to all the greatest
military mines gave them access to the
latest computers at the time and as a
class they would given the project plan
the taking Plan how the best strategy to
take the Goen Heights would be after a
few days the cadets came back to the
professor and said sir we can't do it
Professor saidwhat do you mean based on
the sheer Heights of the cliff based on
the powerful Syrian armaments based on
the weakness of the Israeli troops there
is no strategy for the taking of the
Golan Heights it cannot be done the
professor analyzed the data agreed with
the students and gave them a different
project yet somehow the Golan Heights
were taken a huge track of the Sinai
desert was captured and Israel that tiny
little fledgling country one out against
armies navies Air Forces so many times
more powerful and it did it with such
astonishing speed and ease that it
clearly is in the category of quite eye
openening but just to put it into
perspective I heard about a book and I
said I must get this book the name of
the book is called the seventh day
soldiers speak and it's the chronicles
of soldiers who who lived through the
sixth day Wars but after the sixth day
the seventh day this was their telling
their stories and all of the stories are
written by
non-religious soldiers most of them many
of them kibbutzniks not with any Jewish
ideology but there was one story in
particular that caught my attention and
I decided that I must get this book
here's the
story one Jeep is the driver of the Jeep
along with four of his other companion
are heading into the Sinai desert at the
very beginning of the campaign and he
describes that as soon as they start
going into the sin there's a tremendous
amount of sand that's being kicked up
and they lost eye contact with any of
their comrades and it wasn't until they
were deep deep into the sin that they
realized that they were alone 50 miles
into the Sinai desert one lone Israeli
Jeep and they understood the difficulty
they were in when they saw the Egyptian
migs flying now you have to appreciate
the sand of the desert is flat here was
a Jeep of Israeli soldiers waiting to be
destroyed demolished he describes he
stopped the Jeep he told his men spread
out they spread out in the sand and they
knew that their end was there and he
describes that the Egyptian Plains flew
as low as they possibly could and they
strafed the sand he described you could
feel the sand
explode and after the first pass when
all the planes had left he stood up
untouched and he looked left and he
looked right and none of his soldiers
were touched either but the Egyptians
realized that they missed so he
describes that he saw them in air turn
around and come for a second pass same
routine spread out they lie down face
down in the sand and again they feel the
sand being ripped
up with
bullets after the pass he stands up is
untouched he looks left he looks right
and every one of the soldiers was
untouched and then he saw the Egyptians
coming for a third pass because they
understood that they missed and they
weren't looking to miss again same
routine spread down the sand again the
planes fly low strafe the
sand and again every Israeli soldier
there stands up untouched but then they
understood that they were really in for
trouble because the Egyptian planes
circled came back and they were coming
on a fourth pass now if you're familiar
with the Vietnam War you know
that Napal is a petroleum byproduct it's
a
horrific destructive force it's
effectively a bomb that ignites into
fire
on contact and he describes that on the
fourth pass the Egyptian PLS dropped the
Napal and he could feel the heat the
Searing heat explode and when they
passed he stood up and every soldier
with him stood up untouched eventually
the Israelis came chased them out of the
sky he survived the war and he told his
story now when I originally heard about
the story I said to myself I must read
this I must see it with my own eyes and
I went on Amazon and I went on finding a
very rare ad of print book but I found
it and I held it in my hands and I read
it with wrapped astonishment and exactly
as I described is what he was describing
and then he comes to the punchline then
he comes to what we learn from it and he
says these
words I guess we got lucky and I wanted
to drop the book what I guess we got
lucky
and
astonishingly that was his conclusion
after living through a miracle that's
inexplicable after watching in front of
his eyes that which can't possibly be be
his lesson that he learned was I guess
we got lucky and if you'd like to
understand Jewish history you have to do
one thing you have to step back and be
objective and you have to ask yourself
what do my eyes see you see if you wish
not to see Miracles you can blind
yourself if you'd like to remain in a
state of stuper you can see the most
miraculous things happening and just say
hey whatever it just happen stance it's
just occurrences but if you want to see
God in the world open your eyes and ask
yourself one simple question what are
the odds what does my mind tell me when
I study a nation still existing after
thousands of years when I see the
Miracles in involved what do I see and
from an objective clear standpoint
there's one answer I see God God
protecting his people God ushering his
people in and if you'd like to see the
message of Kaneka it's God you fought
our battles then as now you judged our
judgments then as now you took our
revenge then as now and God is the
Jewish people's Defender we are one
nation an exalted Nation an eternal
Nation protected by our God and if you
want to think about something when you
light the Kaneka candles it's thinking
about history thinking about the unique
journey of the Jewish people and what
our role ultimately is supposed to be
amongst all the
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nations