When G-d Says No

Photos: Elchanan Kotler, Flash 90

IT was Friday, 9 Cheshvan (October 14) 1994, as the nation held its collective breath, unified in prayer for a miracle  — or at least a daring IDF rescue — after 19-year-old Golani soldier Nachshon Wachsman Hy”d was abducted and held for nearly a week at gunpoint by his Hamas terrorist captors. The deadline for his execution — eight p.m. Friday night — was approaching. Would Israel capitulate to Hamas’s demand for the release of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and another 200 terrorists from Israeli prisons in exchange for Nachshon’s life?

Yehudah Wachsman a”h, Nachshon’s father, begged the nation to daven — in fact, over 100,000 people of all religious stripes and types converged on the Kosel to pray for his safety. His mother, Esther, pleaded with women in Israel and around the world to light an extra Shabbos candle. In the end, as we know, Nachshon was killed by his captors during a brave but failed rescue attempt by IDF commandos. And, as his rosh yeshivah famously said at the funeral, “Hashem hears every prayer, but just as a father always wants to say ‘yes’ to his children’s requests, sometimes he must say ‘no,’ even if the child doesn’t understand why. Hashem heard our prayers, and for some reason that we don’t understand, this time He said ‘no.’”

Today, with the approaching yahrtzeit, we’re heading to the village of Bir-Nabala, back to the still-abandoned house where Wachsman was held and eventually murdered, where officer Nir Poraz was killed and seven other soldiers wounded during the rescue attempt. The village is just a few minutes outside of Jerusalem, but we have a military escort as it’s over the fence in Area C, and these days, especially with Israeli-Arab tensions taut and security forces on high alert, it might as well be a different universe.

We’re joined by Major Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, who at the time was commander of Army Intelligence’s elite Sayeret Matkal reconnaissance unit, the rescue force that charged in on the captors 28 years ago. We’ve also asked Chezi Wachsman, Nachshon’s brother, to join us — he’s never been back to the captivity house before, nor has he ever seen the couch where his brother was held, and eventually murdered. Chezi doesn’t come alone, though. He brings along a close friend and fellow bereaved brother named Itamar Moreno.