Duvi Honig is Founder & CEO, Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce
As we enter Hoshana Rabbah and move toward Simchas Torah, I keep coming back to the miracle that unfolded in the sky aboard the Flydubai flight carrying Israelis home. The more you think about what happened, the harder it is to look at it as just another dramatic news story. A plane was in crisis thousands of feet in the air. The captain had been attacked. The aircraft was plunging and spiraling downward. Passengers believed they might not survive.
And somehow, one thing after another happened at exactly the right moment to bring them safely back to the ground.
There was courage on that plane, and it deserves to be recognized. The captain, even while wounded, was still able to help. Passengers stepped forward when they could have frozen in fear. The attacker was subdued. People with the ability to take control were there when they were desperately needed. An aircraft that appeared to be heading toward catastrophe was stabilized and landed safely. More than 170 people came home alive.
A Jew should be able to look at that and simply say: Hashem, we see Your Hand. Thank You.
What struck me most is when this happened. During Sukkot, Jews all over the world were holding a lulav and etrog and moving them in every direction - right and left, forward and backward, up and down. Chazal connect these movements with protection from ruchot ra'ot and telalim ra'im, harmful winds and harmful forces, while recognizing that every direction, along with the heavens and the earth, belongs to Hashem.
Think about that for a moment. Klal Yisrael was shaking the lulav through the air from every side and every angle, and at the same time Jews thousands of feet above the earth suddenly needed protection from every side and every angle. From what was happening inside the cockpit. From the aircraft's violent descent. From above and below. From forces they could see and forces they could not control.
I would never pretend to know Hashem's exact cheshbonot, and none of us can say that one particular mitzvah was the only reason a miracle happened. But we can say with complete faith that mitzvot create zechuyot, that the zechut of Klal Yisrael is real, and that the mitzvot Hashem gave us are not empty obligations. They protect us in ways we often do not see and may never fully understand.
That is the larger lesson I want to carry into Hoshana Rabbah and Simchas Torah:
We do not protect the mitzvot. The mitzvot protect us.
Too often we speak about mitzvot as though they are burdens we have to carry. We have to keep Shabbat. We have to shake the lulav. We have to do this, and we are not allowed to do that. But Hashem did not give us the Torah as a burden. He gave it to us as a gift. He gave us a blueprint for life and a source of protection, bracha and connection to Him.
Shabbat is the clearest example. People sometimes talk as if the Jewish people have spent thousands of years protecting Shabbat. In truth, Shabbat has protected the Jewish people. Through exile, persecution, displacement and generation after generation of change, Shabbat kept us connected to who we are. It kept families together, communities together and Klal Yisrael together. It is not just something we guard; it is a mekor habracha, a source of blessing that has guarded us again and again.
The same is true of the mitzvot we celebrate on Sukkot. The lulav and etrog are not simply items on a checklist. They are a gift from Hashem. When we hold them and move them in every direction, we are reminding ourselves that there is nowhere in this world - no side, no wind, no height and no depth - outside His protection.
People sometimes look for superstitions, charms or secret formulas they hope will protect them. Judaism does not need superstition. Hashem, the Creator of the world, gave us something far greater: His Torah and His mitzvot. Not magic, not guarantees that we will understand every outcome, and not a way to calculate why Hashem does what He does. Rather, a direct connection to Him and a way to bring holiness, zechut and bracha into our lives and into the lives of Klal Yisrael.
When a Jew shakes a lulav in Jerusalem, Lakewood, Brooklyn, London or Melbourne and never knows where the zechut of that mitzvah reaches. Maybe a mitzvah performed quietly in one place becomes part of the protection Klal Yisrael needs somewhere else - on a battlefield, in a hospital, on a highway, or thousands of feet above the ground inside an airplane falling from the sky.
That is why this miracle should not just make us grateful for one safe landing. It should change the way we look at the mitzvot themselves. We should be excited to do them. We should appreciate them. We should recognize that Hashem gave them to us because He loves us and wants to keep us close to Him.
As we enter Hoshana Rabbah, when we again take the lulav and etrog in our hands, I hope we stop for a moment and think about that plane. Right, left, forward, backward, up and down. Every side. Every angle. Every wind. And say: Hashem, thank You for protecting Your children. Thank You for the miracles we see and for the countless miracles we never even know took place.
And as we move into Simchar Torah, perhaps that gratitude should become even bigger. Thank You, Hashem, for giving us the Torah. Thank You for giving us the mitzvot. Thank You for giving Klal Yisrael the blueprint that has kept us alive, connected and protected through thousands of years.
We do not need to wait for a miracle in the sky to value what Hashem placed in our hands. But when He allows us to see one so openly, we should open our eyes, recognize it and say thank You.
May the Torah and mitzvot continue to stand as a zechut for Klal Yisrael. May Hashem protect us from every direction, from dangers seen and unseen, and may we always recognize the gifts He has given us and celebrate them with joy.
Chag Sameach.