Be Strong and Courageous!

In Dvarim 31:23, Moshe brings God’s message to Yehosha:

Be strong and courageous for you will bring B’nai Yisrael to the Land that I have sworn to them, and I will be with you.

In the Book of Yehoshua, in the beginning of Chapter 7, a small Israelite force is defeated by the men of the Ai. Yehoshua is depressed by this and cries out to God.

In verse 10 God tells Yehoshua: “Raise yourself up! Why do you fall on your face?

After they resolve that Achan stole from the booty and that is why God was not with them in their first battle, in Chapter 8 Yehoshua gets a second opportunity to conquer Ai.

In verse 1 we read:

God said to Yehoshua, “Do not fear and do not lose resolve. Take all the people to war with you; arise and go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land…”

In verse 3, Yehoshua followed God’s command:

Yehoshua arose along with all the people of war to go up to Ai. Yehoshua chose 30,000 mighty warriors and dispatched them at night…

With a new strategy and God on their side, this time they were able to defeat the Ai.

The story of Yehoshua sounds a lot like what went on in Israel over the past year. With a small army on duty on Simchat Torah, the IDF was taken by surprise. However, our soldiers never gave up hope. As soon as they heard what was happening, they went down to fight courageously, whether they were called up or not. Many soldiers have served in at least three rounds of miluim (reserve duty) and are willing to serve more if it means that we can bring peace to Israel.

Many brave soldiers lost their lives, fighting to ensure a brighter future for all of us.

There have been hundreds of soldiers who were severely injured and are now on the road to recovery. These soldiers are using all of their energy to get themselves better.

If you want to know what it means to be brave and courageous, all you need to do is visit the soldiers in the rehabilitation programs in Israel’s hospitals.

If we have learned anything from this year it is what a real hero looks like.