Forty years ago, Israel’s enemies rose up and attacked the Jewish people on their holiest day. It was indeed a day of fear and trembling
The Torah warns us not to feel overconfident. In Devarim (8:17), Moshe Rabbeinu implores the Jewish people never to forget the source of their blessings and think “kochi v’otzem yadi asah li es hachayil hazeh” — my strength and the might of my hand made me all this.”
Such was the position of Israel after the Six Day War. A stunning victory, a miraculous turn of events, had left Israel feeling swollen and indolent. Its Arab enemies had been pushed back to easily defensible lines; Israeli soldiers were stationed overlooking the Suez Canal. What could possibly go wrong?
On that terrible day in October of 1973, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau heard the blast of the air raid siren in a Tel Aviv shul, Haim Sabato was a soldier on the front lines, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb was a stunned mispallel in faraway Silver Spring, MD, and Ambassador Yehuda Avner was in the highest echelons of Israel’s government. After the war, Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis would visit soldiers maimed by the war in hospitals across Eretz HaKodesh. Their memories of that fretful day, detailed for Mishpacha here, are no less powerful 40 years later.
–Gershon Burstyn
By Rav Yisrael Meir Lau
When the war began, I was naturally in shul. It was 1:45, and in the middle of Eileh Ezkera, the sound of a siren pierced the serenity of the holy day.
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