A Bright Night

Motzei Shabbat April 14, 2024 – Saturday night. I turn on my phone after Shabbat – interesting, messages from both the girl’s school and “Talmud Torah” for boys. That’s strange…  

“In light of the security situation, pre-Passover camp is cancelled for at least the next two days…” 

“It’s very important for the boys to learn Torah, ‘the world only exists for the breath of the young children’… but it’s still too dangerous, they need to learn at home, no school tomorrow.” 

WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED??? 

I check the news – massive attack directly from Iran is on its way to Israel. OMG. 

These are the moments where all the emuna “weightlifting” we do day in and day out now comes to the test. Can we bench press this weight? Can we hold steady, even while our lives hang in the balance?  

Take a deep breath. Good job, keep breathing. What exactly am I supposed to DO right now??? 

Some of the top Google searches that night were “Psalms,” “The General Rectification” (Tikkun Klali, Rebbe Nachman’s 10 Psalms) and “A Psalm of Thanksgiving” (Mizmor L’Todah Psalm 100). So clearly, I wasn’t the only one who turned right to God Almighty Himself in prayer, and thanks. 

Next, the thought passed my mind, “Could this be seriously dangerous? Will people die tonight? Is this the real WWIII? Is it all going down now? What is Hashem doing to us???”  

I immediately remembered Rabbi Arush’s repeated insistence in the past: “Hashem did not build the land until now to destroy it! Hashem is only building and building!” 

Then I remembered what Rabbi Arush teaches in The Garden of Gratitude – the primary sin of the Jewish people when the spies gave their negative report of the Land of Israel, was thinking that Hashem had brought them that far, just to kill them. In their fear, they forgot that Hashem is only good, and does good, and things are only getting better and better!  

Lack of emuna was their downfall then and it’s been our downfall ever since. It is the root cause of all the tragedies! 

Therefore, in our fear now at this very dangerous moment in time, we must also remember this critical aspect of emuna: 

HASHEM IS ONLY GOOD AND THINGS ARE ONLY GETTING BETTER AND BETTER.  

HE DID NOT BRING THE JEWISH PEOPLE BACK TO THE LAND TO KILL US ALL NOW – GOD FORBID TO EVEN THINK SUCH A THING! 

Just the opposite! Get your timbrels ready because Hashem is going to save us! There will be big miracles! We just need to do lots of thanking Hashem for protecting the Jewish people and saying Psalm 100 Mizmor L’Todah. Ein od milvado – there is only God Almighty, only He chooses what happens, only He is in control and He has all the power! 

And wow, what miracles did the Jewish people have that night! Don’t get confused and fall into the terrible sin of “By the might of my right hand did we achieve this victory.” The Jews are certainly strong and resilient and thank God we now have the means with which to defend ourselves – but all the success came from Hashem.  

As Rabbi David Lau recently mentioned, that there were outright miracles not only in the incredible success rate of intercepting missiles and drones within minutes, but that even the international coalition itself was a miracle. The fact that Saudi Arabia and Jordan got involved, for whatever personal interests they might have, was total Divine intervention.  

Emuna teaches that even the hearts of man are in God’s Hand, and especially the hearts of leaders, and even our enemies. Just like King David, we went out to war – but just like King David, we must also know that the success comes only from Hashem, that God fights our battles if it seems like we are shooting – and things could have ended very differently just as easily.  

The God of Israel lives! Who got JORDAN to help us intercept missiles? Everyone is shocked. The entire thing is a series of hidden miracles. Who helped them intercept almost everything? Saudi Arabia has been trying this same technology against the Houthis in Yemin – THEY CANNOT GET IT TO WORK FOR THEM – 100% failure rate. And we have an average 95% success rate? A few months ago, we struck a missile that was near space – no one thought it was possible. HOW???  

 
The answer is God. The answer is that we are only here by miracles. How did Israel win The War of Independence? The Yom Kippur War? All the military academies won’t study those wars since even they recognize that those wars weren’t won by any natural means. Iraq carpet bombed Israel in the Gulf War. We have testimonies of captured Iraqi generals that they sent hundreds of cruise missiles, including chemical weapons. They all disappeared off the radar – only 39 got through, 39 lashes for the nation breaking Shabbat! 

The Jewish people only continue to live – Am Yisrael Chai! – because of God’s miracles! Then and now!  

It might be a catchy Shwekey tune – but it doesn’t make it any less true! Every time you say Am Yisrael Chai – make sure to add, THANK YOU HASHEM! With Psalm 100! No one can explain it – to the point that the Jewish people’s miraculous survival and continuation through the ages is a solid proof of God’s existence! 

Never forget Rabbi Arush’s acronym: Mashiach stands for:

“Someone with emuna will stay alive.” משיח = מי שיאמין יישאר חי . 

These are such huge tests of emuna that even the Sages said: “Let him come, but we don’t want to be there.” But we are here, and Hashem doesn’t give a test to a person that he can’t pass. Stay strong in your emuna! See only Hashem! Thank Hashem for how He has constantly protected us – and surely God will continue to protect us with open miracles! 

See Rabbi Arush’s clip about leaning only on Hashem: 

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Rachel Avrahami grew up in Los Angeles, CA, USA in a far-off valley where she was one of only a handful of Jews in a public high school of thousands. She found Hashem in the urban jungle of the university. Rachel was privileged to read one of the first copies of The Garden of Emuna in English, and the rest, as they say, is history. She made Aliyah and immediately began working at Breslev Israel.   
  
Rachel is now the Editor of Breslev Israel’s English website. She welcomes questions, comments, articles, and personal stories to her email: rachel.avrahami@breslev.co.il.