From Transgression to Triumph

On Sunday, May 30, a group of people brazenly held a parade celebrating sodomy in our sacred city of Jerusalem. We failed to protest. We failed to prevent this atrocity. The event unfolded with 10,000 people  in God’s city defiantly proclaiming that sodomy is not an abomination. 

The very next day, out of nowhere, temperatures soared to a scorching 100 degrees. 

Hezbollah relentlessly pounded our northern border, as they have every day since October 7. But for the first time, they ignited massive fires in major Israeli cities. Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis of Yemen, ISIS of Iraq, and the nation of Iran have unleashed tens of thousands of rockets into our borders, yet never did they turn our northern border into a blazing inferno—until we permitted a sodomite parade. 

Did Hezbollah inflict this devastation upon us, or are we to blame? 

The Role of Collective Responsibility in Israel’s Spiritual Warfare 

Now, the good news. 

If somebody does something atrocious in the name of all of us, and we must collectively pay for it, then likewise, if somebody does something good in the name of all of us, Hashem can bless His entire nation in the merit of that person’s good deed. 

Case in point: On Sunday, April 14, Iran fired 330 missiles at Israel. There wasn’t a single fatality. Each missile looked like an 18-wheel truck, massive in size. Hashem sent us a miracle that none of them did any damage to us. 

On Motzei Shabbat, April 13, the day before, the fifth most popular search term entered into Google Israel was Psalms. Jews all over Israel prayed to Hashem to protect one another, and Hashem gave us an open miracle. 

Hashem controls His world. Rabbi Dr. Yitzchak Breitowitz of Ohr Sameach says it perfectly: When we say MiChamoCha Balim Hashem (מי כמכה באלים הי – Who is like You among the gods, Hashem), we are stating that Hashem is above everything that we feel we are helpless to. 

It’s natural to assume that the things we cannot confront are things nobody can confront. When we see powers that look invincible, like those who control high-tech, the internet, and the media, we feel that none of us can escape their grasp.  

MiChaMocha is our daily reminder that all this is nothing in the eyes of Hashem. If there is an Off switch to all of this, He has it and can use it as He pleases. Even a nation of 80 million people firing state-of-the-art missiles at us from 1,200 miles away is nothing to God. 

So take heart and take action! 

Every good deed, every mitzvah, and every moment of faith can bring about Hashem’s blessings for our entire nation. Your actions matter and they make a difference. 

The Unstoppable Power of Divine Promises 

This is Hashem’s world.  

He tells us every day in the Shema that when we perform His mitzvot, He will bless us: 

I will give rain for your land at the proper time, the early rain and the late rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine and your oil. And I will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be sated. (Devarim 13: 14-15) 

There is no human on this world, no technology developed, no resource available that can give us rain on demand. Nobody can cause the early or late rains to fall on the earth. Nobody can control how much grain, grapes, olives, and grass will sprout in a given season.  

Only God can make this promise, and He does it every day.  

This is clear and tangible confirmation that our good deeds merit God’s blessing to protect our country. In parshat Bechukotai, Hashem expands on the blessings to include military security:  

And I will grant peace in the Land, and you will lie down with no one to frighten [you]; I will remove wild beasts from the Land, and no army will pass through your land; You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you; Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you. (Vayikra 26:6-8) 

Hashem doesn’t promise us military dominance from polished officers. He doesn’t guarantee victory with modern equipment. In the very first line of the parshat Bechukotai, Hashem tells us about His single requirement for His Divine protection: 

If you follow My statutes and observe My commandments and perform them. (Vayikra 26:3) 

From Destruction to Redemption: The Power of Mitzvot 

What spiritual practices should we emphasize to protect our community? How can we effectively communicate the spiritual implications of such events to the public? 

We saw with our own eyes that sodomite parades led the country to incinerate. Our sins are very destructive.  

Kal V’Chomer (All the more so) when we perform mitzvot, we make an even greater impact for the good. When we return to Hashem, we have peace.  

Every mitzvah you perform can reduce and even eliminate our personal and national tribulations.  Every middot you improve upon brings God’s blessing to the Nation of Israel. Every hour of Torah you learn strengthens us. Every act of kindness, from a smile to a stranger to a helping hand to a fellow Jew, brings the blessings Hashem promises us.  

Every moment of faith makes a difference in His world, His land, and His nation.  

It’s not just our beloved heroes in uniform making the difference – it’s you. It’s you who petitions Hashem, with your mitzvot, middot, and chessed, to protect us in a way that nobody on this earth possibly can.  

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David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, our local camel. David‘s Israeli startup, 300 Marketing Solutions, is a lean marketing agency for startups and small businesses that creates and promotes SEO-optimized ROI-driven to the right audience on LinkedIn to make your business the star of the show.