The Hand of God v The Wizard of Oz

“With a strong hand and an outstretched arm” – Psalms 136:12

בְּיָד חֲזָקָה וּבִזְרוֹעַ נְטוּיָה

Pundits, podcasts, publishers and talking heads are climbing over each other with
analyses of the events of the last 2 weeks. It does not do justice to the IDF or to the Mossad to even try to break down and analyze the thinking, planning and intelligence-gathering that transpired, until the classified records will be released sometime in the future.

But that does not preclude us, as we go into the High Holidays and the anniversary of October 7, from contemplating the enormity of the miraculous events at the hand of the IDF.

We are all familiar with the Christian parable of the drowning man……

A fellow was stuck on his rooftop in a flood. He was praying to God for help. Soon a man in a rowboat came by and the fellow shouted to the man on the roof, “Jump in, I can save you.” The stranded fellow shouted back, “No, it’s OK, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me.”
So the rowboat went on.
Then a motorboat came by. “The fellow in the motorboat shouted, “Jump in, I can save you.” To this the stranded man said, “No thanks, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith.”
So the motorboat went on.
Then a helicopter came by and the pilot shouted down, “Grab this rope and I will lift you to safety.” To this the stranded man again replied, “No thanks, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith.”
So the helicopter reluctantly flew away.
Soon the water rose above the rooftop and the man drowned. He went to Heaven. He finally got his chance to discuss this whole situation with God, at which point he exclaimed, “I had faith in you but you didn’t save me, you let me drown. I don’t understand why!” To this God replied, “I sent you a rowboat and a motorboat and a helicopter, what more did you expect?”

The IDF’s discipline, training, confidence and sheer chutzpah represent the inverse of the Drowning Man Parable. The IDF recognizes the aid and the tools that God provides. Such recognition takes emunah (faith) to a higher level. When we acknowledge that “God opens His hands” we don’t simply rely on God’s will and wait to be “saved” by Him.

“I, the Lord, have called unto you in righteousness, and have taken hold of your hand, and submitted you as the people’s covenant, as a light unto the nations.”
– Isaiah 42:6

Israel knows what has to be done to be a light unto the nations to try to save this broken world!

Since October 7, 2023, Jewish people all over the world have discovered that no matter the narrative or how just our cause, we will not be heard, for the reason that we are Jewish. Israeli women who were raped were not heard and in spite of the threat to our existence, we – Israel – is not being heard.

Israel knows what has to be done to be a light unto the nations to try to save this broken world…….and to protect ourselves.

The Wizard of Oz is a story about a purported leader, a leader without any substance. Sitting behind his curtain, the leader creates the illusion that he is great and powerful but in reality, he is quite powerless. He is nothing.

The leader of Hezbollah learned that he was quite powerless at the very same time that the leader of Iran fled to a hiding place.

ABBA EBAN (June 19, 1967} at the UN General Assembly – “Nobody in Israel between May 23 and June 5 will ever forget the air of foreboding that hovered over our country. Hemmed in by hostile armies ready to strike, affronted and beset by a flagrant act of war, bombarded day and night by predictions of our approaching extinction, forced into total mobilization, her economy and commerce beating feebly, her main supplies of fuel choked by a belligerent act, Israel faced the greatest peril to her existence since the hour of her birth ….The choice was to live or perish, to defend the national existence or forfeit it for all time.”

“Foreign military experts, “Were amazed at the miracle of a small army with partly obsolete weapons trouncing a mighty army with modern, sophisticated equipment…. If they had not seen the battlefields with their own eyes, they would not have believed it.” It was as if an unseen hand – an unseen army – was helping them.”

With a strong hand and an outstretched arm the IDF pulled back the curtain.