HaRav Shuel Eliyahu is Chief Rabbi of Tzfat
Recently, I had the privilege of sharing Torah ideas with HaRav Yisrael Ariel, shlita, one of the foremost Torah scholars of our day. Most of the understandings presented in this lesson are based upon his insights.
Ingratitude
The episode of the Spies is a story of ingratitude. God took them, along with the redeemed nation, out of slavery to freedom, gave them the Torah, fed them with quail and manna, and caused His Divine Presence to dwell among them, yet they forgot all this goodness.
The Torah relates: “And in the wilderness, where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you traveled until you came to this place."
Incredible as it may seem, although God cared for them, they said that God hated them:
“And you murmured in your tents and said: ‘Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt’" (Deuteronomy 1).
They claimed that He wanted to kill them:
“To deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us."
Correcting Ingratitude - By Giving Thanks for Miracles
We must rectify the ingratitude that brought about weeping for generations. Therefore, we must thank God for the great miracles that have occurred in our days.
During the last three years, the People of Israel were saved from destruction three times.
On Simchat Torah, our enemies plotted to annihilate us through a combined assault: Hamas Nukhba terrorists from the south, Hezbollah’s Radwan forces from the north, terrorists from Jordan and Syria, hostile Arabs from Judea, Samaria and within Israel itself, along with ballistic missiles from Yemen and Iran. Through miraculous Divine Intervention, God frustrated their plan to unite all these fronts, and the People of Israel were saved from total destruction.
The second threat came from Hezbollah, which had amassed more than 150,000 precision-guided missiles aimed at strategic sites throughout the State of Israel. In the “beeper" operation, which astonished the world, Israel eliminated the organization’s chain of command in a surprise strike. Israel then took advantage of the panic that fell upon them, attacked their missile sites and destroyed most of them.
The third miracle was the removal of the Iranian threat of annihilation. For years Iran openly declared its intention to destroy the State of Israel. It pursued nuclear weapons and armed itself with thousands of ballistic missiles. On the seventeenth of Sivan, 5785, the People of Israel rose like a lion, struck, and destroyed Iran’s nuclear facilities and ballistic missile infrastructure. In this way, an immediate threat of destruction was removed from over Israel.
The Miracles of “A People That Rises Like a Lion"
The war against Iran brought many significant achievements.
The first was the severe blow dealt to Iran’s nuclear project and ballistic missile system.
The second was that the Israeli Air Force immediately gained control of Iranian airspace. No Iranian aircraft succeeded in taking off and attacking Israeli planes, and all Israeli aircraft returned safely to their bases.
The third was that the commanders of the Iranian military and air force gathered together in one headquarters, and Israeli Air Force planes eliminated the senior command in a single strike.
The fourth was that the nations of the world followed our lead. Their criticism was mostly lip service. They maintained diplomatic relations because they needed our assistance.
The fifth was that the United States, which had feared a war with Iran, joined the effort on the final day. Europe as well, despite criticizing Israel, imposed sanctions on Iran. These sanctions created severe shortages within Iran and led to massive public demonstrations.
A Miracle Before the Eyes of the Nations
The nations of the world also feared an Iranian atomic bomb.
They themselves had experienced Iranian terrorism which disrupted shipping in the Red Sea even without nuclear weapons. What would Iran do if it possessed nuclear weapons with which to threaten the world?
Therefore, they thanked God that Israel had done the difficult work on their behalf and eliminated the Iranian nuclear threat.
Regarding this, the Psalmist says:
“A Psalm. Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wondrous things… The Lord has made known His salvation; before the eyes of the nations He has revealed His righteousness. He has remembered His kindness and His faithfulness to the House of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God" (Psalms 98:1-3).
One Recites Hallel for the Saving of Life
Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, shlita, said that our Sages taught that there is an obligation to give thanks for the saving of life. They derived this through a kal va-chomer (a fortiori argument):
“If for freedom from slavery we sing praise, then certainly for being saved from death to life."
If Israel sang praise at the Exodus from Egypt, then certainly praise should be sung after the miracle of Purim, when the Jewish people were saved from death.
Nevertheless, the Talmud explains that on Purim we read the Megillah and do not recite Hallel because:
“Hallel is not recited for a miracle that occurred outside the Land of Israel."
In addition, Hallel contains the phrase:
“Praise, O servants of the Lord," yet after the Purim miracle the Jews were still subjects of Ahasuerus. For this reason, the Sages established the reading of the Megillah in place of Hallel.
A Miracle Accomplished Through Human Hands Is Still a Complete Miracle
Even though everything in our recent and ongoing wars was accomplished through human action and not through openly supernatural intervention, we are still obligated to sing praise.
Thus Joshua said to Israel concerning their wars against the Canaanites:
“And the Lord has driven out before you great and mighty nations; and no man has stood before you until this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is He who fights for you, as He promised you. Therefore take great heed to yourselves to love the Lord your God" (Joshua 23:9-11).
Similarly, Scripture says:
“Were they wise, they would understand this, they would discern their latter end. How could one pursue a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them and the Lord had shut them up?" (Deuteronomy 32:29-30).
True wisdom is to marvel at the victory of the few over the many and to understand that God accomplished it all.
Accordingly, the Ramban writes that one is obligated to see the hand of God even in miracles that appear natural: “From the great and public miracles, a person comes to acknowledge the hidden miracles, which are the foundation of the entire Torah. For a person has no share in the Torah of Moses our teacher until he believes that all our affairs and occurrences are miracles; there is no such thing as nature or the ordinary course of the world, whether concerning the community or the individual" (Ramban on Exodus 13:16).
If, during the course of the past few years, we have been remiss in not having expressed our gratitude toward Hashem for all of the wonders and salvations we have witnessed, let us amend our wrongdoing and express joyful thanks, thereby rectifying our ingratitude and concurrently rectifying the ingratitude of the Spies in their rejection of the good Land which Hashem granted to our holy Forefathers and to us.