Rabbi Dov Lior, a senior religious Zionist halachic adjudicator, states in a new letter that there is an obligation of thanksgiving for the miracles that occurred during the Yom Kippur War despite the high number of casualties sustained by Israel during the war.
"Regarding the establishment of a day of thanks, in my opinion, it seems that (the Yom Kippur War) is no less than the Six Day War, and a day of thanks should be established on the 28th of Tishrei, the day the fighting ended, to thank G-d by reciting the Hallel prayer with a blessing," writes Rabbi Lior in a letter written as a congratulatory letter on the completion of a new book by Rabbi Shai Hirsch which delves into the religious aspects of the war.
"Maybe it was not done due to the great pain and bereavement that the war brought, but 50 years later, there is certainly a place to go back and thank G-d for the miracles that occurred during this war."
At the beginning of the letter, Rabbi Lior discusses the question of why the Yom Kippur War occurred. "Of course, we do not shy away from the question of why this difficult war befell us, but our goal is not to scoff but to fix what is skewed," he wrote.
"In my opinion, the reason is that we didn't do what we needed to after the Six Day War. Divine providence returned large parts of our land to us, and we needed to clean them of terrorists and immediately establish Israeli sovereignty over them, but the rulers intentionally prevented the expulsion of terrorists from our land and prevented the application of sovereignty in these areas.
This book directs us to see the greatness of the Heavenly providence that was in this war and to reach the right conclusions for the future."