search
Areyah Kaltmann

Shabbat Lights and IDF Might – Divine Providence in Israel’s Heroism

Jewish Women and Girls lighting Shabbat Candles - Photo Credit (Mendy Hechtman)

As we prepare for Simchat Torah, the one-year Hebrew anniversary of the October 7 massacre, Jews around the world are still grappling with our people’s horrendous loss. Yet, despite the pain, there is still much to be hopeful for. The countless stories of resilience, miracles, and acts of heroism have already given strength to many. However, there is an even greater message drawn from Hasidic teachings that can serve as a beacon of light amid the darkness that many are feeling.

According to Hasidic philosophy, events all around us contain powerful life lessons. The Hamas invasion of October 7 and Israel’s recent elimination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, teach us that the forces of goodness transcend time and space, and are far more potent than the forces of negativity and destruction.

Throughout history, the enemies of the Jewish people have chosen specific dates or inauspicious anniversaries to carry out their attacks. Hamas chose October 7 for their surprise attack because they wanted to build on the devastation of the Yom Kippur War, which began with another surprise attack 50 years earlier. That war left a deep scar in Israeli society as over 2,500 IDF soldiers lost their lives and 10,000 were wounded fighting the Egyptian and Syrian armies. Hamas sought to continue this legacy of destruction 50 years later—50 being a number which, in Judaism, represents the completion of a cycle of time, as the Biblical Jubilee cycle repeated every 50 years.

There is an uplifting concept from the Talmud known as Mida Tova Meruba, which states that what is true for the negative must be even more true for the positive. Any life lesson with a negative message must contain greater truth in its positive iteration. In this instance, the fact that past evils can influence future evils is even more true for acts of goodness and kindness.

We can see this at work in another recent event connected to Israel’s war with its terrorist neighbors. On September 27, when the IDF eliminated Hezbollah’s leader Nasrallah—ending his reign of terror and bringing peace of mind to many Israelis and Jews around the world—they did so on the 25th of the Hebrew month of Elul, a day of great significance. Fifty years prior, a campaign to bring light and peace to the world was launched in Brooklyn, NY—one which transformed Judaism and the entire world.

On the 25th of Elul 1974, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, initiated the famous “Mivtza Neshek” or the candle lighting campaign. Aside from Chabad’s renowned tefillin campaign—launched during Israel’s 1967 Six-Day War—what Chabad is probably best known for is distributing candles to Jewish women and young girls to light before Shabbat and Jewish holidays.

This campaign’s name “Neshek” is both a Hebrew acronym for “Nerot Shabbat Kodesh” (Holy Shabbat Candles) and the Hebrew word meaning “weapon”. This name reflects the Hasidic teaching that lighting Shabbat candles is a powerful tool in the struggle of light over darkness and good over evil.

As countless people can testify, this campaign was so much more than merely participating in a rote Jewish tradition. For many Jewish women and girls, lighting candles gives them a feeling of warmth, meaning, comfort, and connection; a palpable sense of Kedusha or holiness. The Rebbe spoke about how lighting candles in times of trouble would bring spiritual protection not only for those who lit the candles but also for the Jewish people as a whole.

While the IDF may not have knowingly conducted their targeted operation on the anniversary of Mivtza Neshek, I believe that this campaign to spread light and holiness around the globe had powerful spiritual reverberations which ultimately caused a great source of darkness to perish on the jubilee anniversary of its initiation.

Comparing these two seemingly unrelated events—October 7 and Nasrallah’s demise at the hands of the IDF—we see that the forces of darkness, while apparently strong, are much weaker than the forces of light and good. The parallel intervals of 50 years, signaling the passage of a chapter in time, indicate that many patterns in the past can be repeated in the present and future.

This is positive, as the overarching pattern in Jewish history has shown that while our people have endured tremendous suffering, the seeds of our redemption were almost always contained within the troubles themselves. The Talmud says that on the day the Temple was destroyed, Moshiach was born. The day the Jews were expelled from Spain was the same day that Columbus’s voyage set sail for the New World, which was an escape route for many Jews in hiding and paved the way for Jewish life in America centuries later.

While we cannot know the mystery of G-d’s ways, what we can be assured of is that there is Divine Providence—a divine hand guiding the events we see, protecting the Jewish people and the IDF. This divine plan ensures that while we may face setbacks and hardships, we can always count on Hashem to deliver us and offer us salvation. Let us pray that the remaining hostages are brought home—and that G-d brings us all home to Jerusalem with the speedy coming of Moshiach.

About the Author
Rabbi Areyah Kaltmann is the Director of Chabad Columbus at the Lori Schottenstein Chabad Center. For over three decades, Rabbi Kaltmann and his wife Esther have put their heart and soul into serving the Columbus Jewish community. In addition to directing Chabad Columbus, the Rabbi and his family also operate LifeTown Columbus — which teaches essential life skills to more than 2,100 Ohio students with special needs in a 5,000-square-foot miniature city, Kitchen of Life — which fosters social-emotional skills for young people through culinary arts, Friendship Circle Columbus, the Jewish Business Network, and dozens of other programs. Areyah and Esther have adult children who serve Chabad of Downtown Columbus, oversee Chabad’s many programs and enthusiastically serve people throughout the state.
Related Topics
Related Posts