Ilan Goodman is a professor of art history and a museum curator. He also serves as a rabbi and educator. He made Aliyah to Israel in 2011 and lives with his wife and children in Beit Shemesh.
That day was the kind of day whose story my children will tell their future grandchildren. The attempted hijacking of a Dubai airplane headed to Israel by its own co-pilot-turned terrorist and the brave Israeli passengers who leaped into action, saving the pilot, subduing the terrorist, and bringing the plane back to a safe landing, is the material history is made of.
What was planned as a second 9/11 turned into a modern-day Entebbe. You can't read the news without feeling a swell of national pride. Most people would say that heroes were made that day.
I disagree.
Don't get me wrong, those courageous Israelis who stormed the cockpit, and indeed all the passengers, are heroes. They're the stuff that movies are made of (and the passengers should start planning who will play them in the inevitable film). But they didn't spontaneously become heroes during that flight.
The reality is that in such a situation, most people would not have reacted as they did. Most would have panicked. Some would have prayed. A few might have tried to be stoic in the face of death. That's the logical response. Instead, these brave people ran headfirst into danger and took control.
Heroism like that doesn't happen in a vacuum. Courage like that shown by the passengers is not something that is inherently born within a person. Like any other attribute, it has to be bred, to be cultivated. It requires a lifetime of character building. The actions of those passengers required a process of inner development that's a product of environment and mentality. It's not natural. It's what someone makes their nature.
It's like a baseball player. He doesn't become suddenly great when he hits a winning home run. That home run came from years of training. From hours every day spent in torturous personal work. Constantly striving to be the best they could be. A life devoted to one goal. All because they knew that sometime, it would be their turn to be called up to bat. And when they made that amazing swing, it was only showing the world the greatness that had always been there.
That day, a group of Israelis was called up to bat, and they knocked it out of the park. As the event unfolded, it showed the entire world a lifetime of inner greatness that was only waiting for an opportunity to shine. When the call came, these daring Jews were ready to answer it. They didn't suddenly become heroes. They brought out the heroes that were already there the entire time.
We will look back on this as a miracle, and with good reason. But while it's unique in its scale, it's not a unique phenomenon. Since October 7th, countless Israelis have faced the challenge and been found worthy. Every day, Jews face incredible odds. Not only our soldiers. The average Israeli has experienced events that would make most Westerners hide under their beds. And over and over again, they've shown that what's inside them is truly the stuff of legend.
It's a testament to the Israeli nation that we produce such amazing individuals. Whatever it is that makes us Israeli, it's clear that it's something pretty special. The Israeli character is constantly proven to be something the rest of the world can only hope to emulate. The best evidence of a society's true nature is the behavior of its ordinary people, and Israel proves every day that Israel breeds heroes.
Scholars and politicians can argue all day about what makes Israel so special. About whether it's our history, our faith, our learning, our destiny, or all of the above and more. But no one can ignore that the Jewish state produces something special. It makes sense in a way. We produce the best technology, the best medicine, the best military. We rise to become the best at everything we set out to do. It only makes sense that we will produce the best heroes.
This is why I'm not scared for our country's future despite the real and overwhelming dangers we routinely face. No matter what they threaten us with, we will be there to meet the challenge. Nothing they can throw at us will ever bring us down. They don't understand that we're not a nation with 10.3 million citizens. We're a nation with 10.3 million heroes.