Israel is the land where the eyes of God and the world continue to look throughout the year (Deut. 11:12) Already for more than half a year Israel has been at war. Last night something unprecedented took place. Iran, for the first time in history, directly attacked Israel.
The Talmud teaches us that a person is measured by the actions they take when they are in a state of anger. Make no mistake Israel and its people are angry. This is the second time in 6 months that Israel has faced a large-scale attack. It is the second time in 6 months that its people have had to take shelter in their safe rooms and bomb shelters, this time in the middle of the night.
The people of Israel are angry. But how do we respond? It is well known that Israel has the most moral army in the world that takes great care to avoid civilian casualties as much as possible. Israel is not at war with the people of Iran but with its tyrannical government.
In this week’s Haftorah, we read how Israel treated one of its enemies, a military general named Na’aman, who even though he was attacking Israel came to receive medical treatment from the prophet Elisha.
After Elisha gave him instructions on how to heal himself in a simplistic manner, Na’aman didn’t believe it. He didn’t believe that the instruction given by the Jewish leader at the time would heal him, especially after the leprosy that plagued him baffled his own healers who were powerless to help. After he was convinced by one of his own advisers to listen to Elisha, he begrudgingly carried out the instructions and saw that he indeed was healed. He came back to Elisha and offered the prophet gifts. Elisha refused the gifts not wanting to take any credit for the miraculous recovery, but reserved it only for the hand of God for it was God’s work and God’s actions that really healed Na’aman.
So too today. The Almighty, working through the IDF, protected the Jewish people last night as he made sure that not even a single person was injured in Iran’s massive attack. We are thankful for his intervention in guiding the hands of the IDF and our allies who worked together to stop the rockets. Our greatest hope is that the Iranian people will overthrow this tyrannical regime and grow to live in peace with Israel. Peace is what every Jewish heart desires.
During this period of redemption when we celebrate the holiday of Passover we beseech the Almighty to grant us a modern-day redemption.
