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The Greatest Miracle: The Jewish Nation - Rabbi Benzion Shafier
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sometimes it's difficult to understand
God's plan sometimes it's difficult when
you study history and you see his people
oppressed you see his people exiled and
sometimes you wonder is there a master
plan and if there is what is it and I'd
like to share with you a perspective
that I believe sheds light on this very
question after an exile that lasted
almost 2,000 years the Jewish people
have reclaimed their land not only have
we as a people still managed somehow
Aston inly to
exist but we've actually gone back to
our very land reclaimed it and built it
up and you have to appreciate that from
a historical vantage point it's
something that has never been done
before historically when a nation is
exiled within a generation or two they
assimilate into the countries in which
they're sent within two or three
generations they're never to be seen
again they become part of the Melting
Pot they become just part of the
population but not only has the Jewish
people remain distinct separate and
unique astonishingly we've gone back to
our very land reclaimed it and rebuilt
it but you have to appreciate some of
the astonishment that a person should be
thinking when they focus on that Mark
Twain visited Palestine in the 1880s and
his description was an
aere Barren Wasteland there was nothing
there it was waste there was nothing it
was an unbuilt uninhabitable land and
basically that's all it was Tel Aviv
today wasn't the city wasn't it was sand
dunes there was yafa which was Jaffa
Port which is a port and if you could
see the pictures from back then it
wasn't a port as we know a port some
rickety things going out in the water
and there were huts and there were few
houses but the land of Palestine was
completely uninhabitable it was Barren
and it was a complete Wasteland and if
you don't appreciate the fact that today
it is a major nation that it's so built
up that it's so established let's focus
on one interesting part of History we
were not exactly welcomed back into our
land my father was born in Germany and
in
1948 when Israel declared its
independence he would was in the United
States of America and he told me that
his feeling at the time was dread and
forbearing because everyone understood
that there was no way that this
fledgling small little country could
possibly continue and everyone
anticipated there'll be another
Holocaust it was only three years after
the end of the last one and there was no
way that such a small nation could
possibly win a war and to give you a
perspective on what it really meant it
wasn't just the fact that the entire
Arab world declared war on this one
small nation at the time there were
650,000 Jews living in what was
Palestine surrounded on all sides by 50
million Arabs and the entire Armament of
the Jewish Nation wasn't great Paul
Johnson in his fantastic book of history
of the Jews writes that on May 14th 1948
when the state of Israel was declared
five mechanized armies attacked and the
entire Armament of the Jewish people
consisted of 177,000 rifles 2,000 Sten
guns 1,000 machine guns and 45,000
Soldiers the land mass ratio of Arabs to
Israel was 640 to1 but it wasn't just
that there was a tremendous amount of
land people
resources everyone understood that the
might of the Arab Nations all gathered
together would clearly destroy this
little new nation and as a matter of
fact AAP Pasha Secretary General of the
Arab League certainly anticipated it
over the airwaves he decried this will
be a war of extermination and a
monumentous massacre and that's exactly
what should have been according to any
normal assessment any intelligent view
of the situation would have predicted a
massacre and if you don't appreciate why
let's focus on one small detail prior to
1948 Palestine was ruled by the British
and the British had a rule the rule was
Jews were not allowed to own guns
meaning there was no Army no normal Navy
Coast Guard there was none of that if a
Jew was found with a gun he was sarily
arrested Ed potentially hung and the
entire Jewish Army until 1948 consisted
of some secret cells meeting trying to
smuggle in arms but we didn't have real
armies and to give you an appreciation
of it I remember very clearly reading a
book as a little boy who was called the
birth of the Israel Air Force what was
the Israeli Air Force in May of 1948 two
Piper Cubs now a Piper Cub is a
very small plane with a propell in the
front kind of like a Go-Kart with a with
wings what these Pilots would do would
fly up fly low over the Egyptian lines
and drop grenades fire handguns out of
the it wasn't an Air Force and
astonishingly there was one story that
was told that sort of gave a a a
perspective on it the pilot would go up
drop his grenades come back to reload go
up again well anyway after one number of
sorties a number of times he went out
the pilot comes back and he says to the
fellow okay load it up put put the
grenades in there were no grenades left
remember Israel didn't have normal
ammunition they didn't have a normal
supply chain they had run out of
grenades so the pilot being a fast
thinking fellow says okay bring me soda
bottles his friend thought it was crazy
sod bring me soda bottles fellow went to
the mesle brought him soda bottles put
him in back the seat the pilot went up
and he flew down very low over the
Egyptian lines and he dropped the soda
bottles when the soda bottles hit the
ground they exploded made a noise the
Egyptians went running they thought it
was still the bombs the grenades now
that's a cute story but you don't win
Wars with soda bottles but if you'd like
to appreciate the perspective let's
focus on one little event betel was a
Kutz two miles outside of Beva was in a
right near it was a very well stocked
well-armed Egyptian army base an entire
Garrison of jeeps and tanks
and this small kibot B eel knew that
they would be the first point of attack
because they were the closest to the
army base before the declaration of war
they prepared they put up sandbags they
got ready and they knew what would
happen and once war was declared first
began the artillery barrage and the
kutnik settled down they knew what was
coming and the Egyptian Army surrounded
them and attacked with 700 Men full
Jeeps everything that they had and it
was a bitter bitter
battle and
astonishingly the kutnik were able to
hold off this complete Garrison of jeeps
tanks the entire Egyptian part they had
thrown at it but that wasn't the amazing
part after the
war they did an analysis the entire
arsenal of the kibuts consisted of two
rifles and 12 machine guns that's all
they had they were fighting off Jeep's
tanks with nothing and Fantasies aside
in the real world 650,000 Jews who were
not soldiers who had no training who had
no Army had no Navy had no Air Force
cannot fight against five fully
mobilized fully mechanized armies in the
real world the victory goes to the
Mighty the vanquisher becomes the most
powerful most best armed and the Jewish
Nation certainly the Jewish land of
Israel should have been wiped out and
astonishingly it
wasn't and to appreciate what that means
let me share with you an article that
was written in maiv an Israeli secular
newspaper not religious in any
perspective not friendly to any concept
of God or anything of that ilk but this
is their article written in May 17
1983 is this how things really happened
just as they tell us in history books
that 650,000 Jews escaped the horrors of
the Holocaust and somehow fought against
the British really establish this
infantry on their own efforts could
these people possibly made a nation
state from emptiness and desolation
could they have stood in Warfare against
the organized armies of five Arab
countries 5% of the Jewish people
standing up against the might could they
possibly strike such a hammer blow
against the Arabs that after one month
the Arabs sue for Peace by all logic and
by all reason everything that happened
in 1948 is in the category of the
impossible it was impossible without
International support it was impossible
to bring Public Services into operation
from nothing it was impossible to create
a military industry from its Beginnings
it was impossible to sustain these front
lines and rear lines everything that
happened could not have
been these are the words words of a
secular Israeli newspaper and if you
look at Israel today the most powerful
Nation by far in the region but that's
not really our source of Pride the most
developed the most Humane the most
sophisticated Nation rivaling any other
nation in Europe maybe in the world
certainly per capita and certainly for
its size but if you don't appreciate
what's so astonishing our I'll share
with you one
observation I give you a
challenge find today an American Indian
in full Regala an American Indian find
me today a old-fashioned American Indian
wearing the moccasins the headdress with
a tomahawk search this country from
coast to coast and you're not going to
find them on the reservations you'll
find some Indians left wearing jeans but
no longer keeping their ways there were
millions and millions and millions of
American Indians here far
outnumbering the white settlers where
are they
today mostly assimilated what's left on
the reservations are but a shell of a
fraction and very little of the Indian
ways are left today yet go to any major
city in this country any major city in
the world and certainly if you go to
Israel today you will find thousands
upon thousands of Jews learning the
exact same Torah that their grandfathers
learned 2,000 years ago you'll find Jews
wearing the same tiits the same garment
with strings on them that their
grandfathers wore 3,000 years ago
putting on the same Fillin with exactly
the same nuances exactly the color
exactly the same words written inside
and when you study a nation that still
exists the spite every effort of mankind
to annihilate it when you see a nation
that has reclaimed its land against such
astonishing odds and built it up to be
that which it is and when you see a
nation that has returned to its ways as
it never has before you're beginning to
see a unique people in the course of
history there has never been such a
phenomena that a nation exists continues
to exist
comes back to its land but more than
anything keeps the very same Traditions
ways of its father you're looking at a
unique people you're looking at God's
people you're looking at a people with a
very specific purpose in the world our
role in history is clear it's our job to
understand what it is that God wants
from us it's our job to understand what
God has destined to be the Jewish role
in
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history