All That Open Ground

In those pre-Iron Dome days, the Gazan terror groups would fire mortar rounds and crude rockets at nearby towns like Sderot and Ashkelon unchecked. Gradually, Israelis grew resigned to the fact that the terrorists could send thousands of civilians fleeing for the shelters.

Adding to the sense of resignation was the fact that the Kassams missed their targets most of the time. As contemporary news reports had it, the missiles fell in “shetach patuach” — open ground.

It took Rav Moshe, though, to notice the absurdity of the reports.

“This is a tiny country, with no room to build in, no space to move,” he exclaimed once. “So where is all this shetach patuach that they speak of, that the rockets keep falling on?! The rockets land all around cities, in between homes, in backyards, but they miss time and again. We’ve become used to it, but what we’re seeing is a miracle.”