Not by my strength and not by our hands do we wage war

On Thursday evening, 181 ballistic missiles, each with half a ton of explosive material, were launched at us in Israel, straight from God’s arms to the Holy Land, just one evening before Rosh Hashanah, the great Day of Judgement.

181 ballistic missiles, each carrying half a ton of explosive material, all over the country, from north to south, from the east of the land to its west, and no one was hurt. Oh, yes. There is one casualty, an illegal resident from Jericho. We cannot underestimate the life of an illegal Arab resident from Jericho. This life was also sacrificed by God to sharpen the message. At the same time, a couple of terrorists with outdated weapons murdered in an instant seven innocent Jews who were waiting for a train to take them home, just like every day.

There is none beside Him, not by my strength did this happen, and the hands of Moses do not wage war.

I wasn’t in Israel when the exploding pagers attack hit in Lebanon. As a computer scientist, my brain nearly overheated from so many thoughts: How did they do it? Were there really tiny explosives in the battery? Not at all sure that’s necessary. An endless broken loop would suffice, plus a few sig kill commands, or something similar. That’s how my train of thought went, and I tried to imagine the talented software engineer who managed with a flick of his keyboard to hit 5,000 Hezbollah terrorists who, for a decade and a half, have not stopped arming themselves and fortifying with astronomical sums of money. Their switch to pagers was intended to avoid surveillance, yet we got them dazzled, shock on shock in the simplest sense of the word.

The next day, as I waited at the airport for the delayed plane to take me back home, at the nearby gate, there was a flight to Tehran. I enjoyed walking back and forth past them, flaunting my Israeli identity, on cloud nine: here, we showed them. Once, and another time.

And on Thursday, I got the answer, not by my strength and not by our hands do we wage war. There is a Creator for the world, He creates, leads, and supervises, and if He removes His oversight for a moment, there is no world, there is no life.

We also received this answer on Simchat Torah a year ago, the power of Israeli technology was beaten and humiliated by despicable and inferior terrorists from Gaza, who came in on ATVs and beat, murdered, and kidnapped innocent children who died sanctifying the name of God, just because they were Jews. All the smart fences, and the millions of shekels invested in advanced technologies did not help us at the moment when God decided to hide His face.

Tomorrow, when we gather to listen to the sound of the shofar crowning our King upon us, we will remember and not forget: there is none beside Him — “אין עוד מלבדו, אפס זולתו”

By His will, He kills and revives; by His will, He brings forth salvation.

Please, Father in heaven, bring us salvation.

האר פניך, במהרה. אמן – Light up Your face, speedily. Amen.