Chanukah: G-d Fights Our Wars - Rabbi Benzion Shafier

[Music] 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 [Music] nations