The story is told by one of the pilots of the Israeli Air Force of a miraculous victory Israel had against its enemies in 1948. As the war began the day after Israel declared its independence, they did not have much supplies to use in battle. The story goes that this pilot flew an airplane over an enemy territory and dropped bombs on them. All of the people ran for cover. The plane returned to its base and was loaded again with more bombs. The pilot steered back to the same territory and dropped the bombs again. He returned for more supplies when the supply agent said that there were no bombs left. The pilot looked around and saw a case of soda bottles in the corner of the storage room. He told the supply agent to quickly put the bottles on his airplane. The agent was confused, but followed the orders of his superior. The pilot then flew back over the enemy territory and dropped the soda bottles from the plane. When the bottles hit the ground, they made explosion sounds just like bombs. The enemy ran in all directions for cover.

How could such a military victory happen?

There’s another story of a non-religious Jew who was taking a class entitled “Great military victories throughout the years” on a military base. The student read through the syllabus and noticed not a single war that Israel fought was on there. He asked the professor why he left it off. The non-Jewish professor spoke with him privately after the class and told him that this class is to learn military strategy. The way Israel won its wars was not through strategy. Actually, they should have lost ever war they fought. The only reason they won is because of clear and open miracles. G-d must be fighting on their side. We don’t win wars by miracles in this country. The student learned a great lesson from this conversation and started to become religious.

In the beginning of the second of this week’s double parsha, Bechukosai, blessings are listed that will come to the Jewish people if they follow the Torah and its mitzvos. One of the blessings is our enemies will fall in battle and it will come about not through our efforts. It will come from G-d. The miraculous victories we have had are only because G-d fought the wars for us. He was rewarding us for following the Torah. This is the key to winning any battle we are in.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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