World brightens as we acknowledge G-d’s gifts

I was recently given a copy of Dr. Hagi ben Artzi’s book on the Six Day War, Megillat Sheshet Hayamim, based on the IDF’s post-war analysis. It contained the following fascinating story: 

On June 4, 1967, the day before Israel launched the preemptive war, the Egyptian minister of war, Abdel Hakim Amer, decided that a review of the Egyptian troops massed in the Sinai was in order. He invited senior military personal form Cairo to join him on an air tour of the lines on a special flight scheduled to take off from Cairo at 7 am the next morning, June 5. A delegation from the Iraqi army was invited to join as well and they flew in a second plane.

To ensure the safety of all these VIPs flying in a closed military air zone, Amer ordered all his anti-aircraft batteries to stand down at 7 am the next morning, adding that any anti-aircraft fire would need to be personally approved by him until counter-orders were issued following the flights. 

The next morning, June 5, at the exact time that 200 Israeli planes launched operation Moked, designed to take out the Egyptian air force on the ground, the entire array of Egyptian anti-aircraft batteries simply shut down. After the war, it was determined that no one in Israel had known of this, and could not have planned for it — it was simply a magnificent coincidence. As a result of this, many anti-aircraft battery operators used the time to get breakfast or nap, such that most of them did not even see the Israeli planes on their radars. This led to the unmitigated success of the first stage of the war; by afternoon Israel controlled the skies over the entire Middle East.

The Six Day War was really won … in six hours. The only question is:  Who was the real Commander-in-Chief?

This week’s portion, Vayelech, which takes place on the last day of Moshe’s life, has Hashem sharing that there will come a time when we as a people will reach our nadir, when we will be so distant from G-d that He will literally “hide” from us. This process, known as hester panim, is when events seem so terrible we might imagine Hashem is no longer willing to intercede on our behalf. 

And when that happens, says the verse (Devarim 31:17), the Jewish people will say, “Is it not because G-d is not in my midst that these evils have come upon me?”

One might have thought this to be a positive development; after all their sufferings and exiles, the Jewish people finally realized that the true source of their travails is that they had abandoned their relationship w G-d. In the tochacha containing the curses in Bechukotai (Vayikra 26) we are remonstrated by G-d for having related to the events around us and even to G-d Himself be’keri (in a happenstance fashion, based on the word mikreh, coincidence), when we ascribe no meaning or Divine plan to the events around us. So perceiving events as the result of having abandoned G-d would seem to be a step in the right direction. 

Yet, G-d’s reaction in the next verse (Devarim 31:18) is followed by an even harsher promise of hester panim (hidden-ness): “Yet I will surely conceal my face on that day because of all the evil.” 

Why is our suggestion that we have abandoned G-d so terrible? 

Rav Frand, in one of his essays quoting Rav Bunim of Pshische, suggests that the issue is not that we have abandoned G-d, but more that G-d has abandoned us. It is precisely when we choose to see a world without G-d, that we do not allow ourselves to see a world with G-d in our lives. 

Inexplicable events occurring at precisely the right moment to facilitate key successes in the Six Day War were nothing short of miraculous. However, after the war, many senior Israeli commanders, in awe at their stellar successes and sensing the hand of a higher power at work, nonetheless focused on the ingenuity and might of the IDF.

After the war, a bumper sticker appeared on cars all over the country reading: “Kol hakavod le’tzahal” (hats off to the IDF). Only after the miraculous salvation of the country in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Israel was literally on the brink of destruction, did a new bumper sticker take its place, proclaiming: “Yisrael betach ba’Hashem” (Israel trusts in G-d).

This then, is the challenge of the portion we read on Shabbat Shuvah, the Shabbat before Yom Kippur. Rather than what will happen in the world, the real question is how we choose to see it. Do we recognize that Hashem is the source of reality and do we acknowledge how blessed we are to live in such incredible times?

Tradition teaches that the source of our first mistake, back in the Garden of Eden, was actually not that we ate from the tree; that might have been forgiven. Rather, it was that we were ungrateful for all that Hashem had given us. G-d does not actually exile Adam and Eve from the garden immediately upon the partaking of the forbidden fruit. Rather, G-d asks Adam if he ate from the fruit, giving him the chance to “own up.”

Instead, Adam blames it on Eve: “The woman you gave to be with me…” (Bereishit 3; 11-12)

Rather than appreciate what a priceless gift a life partner was, Adam was ungrateful, blaming the episode on Eve. This was the source of our first and greatest mistake.

Thus, the ability to experience pure unremitting gratitude is actually the opportunity to undo our mistakes (tikkun) and begin the journey back to a world as it was meant to be, literally as the Garden of Eden. 

This year, amidst all the great challenges that we face as individuals, as a people and as an entire world, let us focus on how blessed we are amidst all the good we have been given, and find ways to live up to the responsibilities and opportunities they entail.

From Jerusalem, wishing all a shanah tovah and a ketivah ve’chatimah tovah, a sweet happy and healthy new year for all.

Contact Rabbi Binny Freedman: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com