We Are the Miracles

We survived slavery in Egypt.

We survived the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and the Romans.

We survived our Temples being destroyed.

We survived the Diaspora.

We survived the Crusades.

We survived expulsions and pogroms in Europe.

We survived prisons in Russia.

We survived the Holocaust.

We survived a UN vote establishing the State of Israel.

We survived the War of Independence, Six Day and Yom Kippur wars.

We survived Munich, Entebbe, Sbarro’s, and countless others.

We survived stabbings and car rammings, tens of thousands of Qassam rockets, and now ballistic missiles.

We survived wars with Lebanon.

We survived 10.7.

We are the miracles. The survivors of 3,500 years of humanity’s worst, bruised again but far from beaten. Despite everything we’ve been through, our passion remarkably is no less to fight for our homeland, to stick up for who we are, to carry on ancient traditions in a modern world, to feel connected unconditionally, no matter how far scattered we might be.

Our sacred texts that have been preserved for millennia, continue to preserve us. Unchanged since the very start, they are still studied, adhered to, forming our identity and influencing our culture, and ever the primary source of Jewish values.

In two generations, we went from being defenseless to having the strongest defense force in the world for its size. Like the Maccabees, today’s IDF has roared back to take on, batter and eventually defeat a much larger enemy, restoring our pride, our security, our deterrence, our ability to be Jewish in Eretz Yisrael, the one place in the world eternally ours, granted by G-d and maintained with conviction and blood.

Anyone who thinks we will lose this war, or give up that land or our right be outwardly if not defiantly Jewish no matter how much we suffer at the hands of an often cruel West, doesn’t understand our history, and they definitely don’t understand the Jewish people.

Because today, we are the miracles, and the miraculous story of the Jews will live on.

#AmYisraelChai
#LightWithPride
#JewishPride
#ChanukahSameach