June 18, 2025|כ"ב סיון ה' אלפים תשפ"ה A Nation Rising and Roaring Like a Lion
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Several times over the last few days, I was talking to someone in Israel—my daughter, sister or a friend—and they nonchalantly interrupted to say, “I need to hang up, the sirens is sounding and we need to head to the bomb shelter.” To be clear, though this is commonplace, there is absolutely nothing normal about ever having to utter the sentence, “I am gathering my family and going to a bomb shelter because ballistic missiles are headed our way.”
Is it really any wonder that Jews suffer disproportionally from gastrointestinal disease? How could the stress, anxiety, and trauma of two thousand years of running and hiding from pogroms, attempted exterminations, and expulsions not be absorbed into our people’s kishkes?
Eighty years after the Holocaust, Jews are once again running to take shelter from those attacking them. In Gaza and Lebanon, our heroic soldiers have been on the front lines risking their lives for the future of our people. But in this war with Iran, all of Israel, 10 million people, find themselves on the front lines, running for shelter and bracing for potential impact. This includes waking sleeping babies, carefully escorting the elderly, stocking up space, packing people in, and going long periods without sleep.
Mi K’amcha Yisroel – Nobody Like the Jewish People
I am in absolute awe of my family, friends and all in Israel whose lives have stopped and have been turned upside down. Many are doing it with spouses serving in miluim or stuck out of the country or without family around to help them. The entire country is now bearing the brunt of the hatred of Iran who want to wipe out the whole Jewish nation globally but are taking it all out only on those in Israel. And yet, somehow, our people carry on with positivity, faith, hope, tenacity, resolve, and a healthy sense of humor.
This is the story of our people. They, our brothers and sisters in Israel, are why we are unstoppable and undefeatable.
There is much uncertainty that remains, but as of now we know that Israel has pulled off an operation that makes the Hezbollah beeper episode look modest and, according to some experts, is on par with the miracle of the Six Day War. On June 13, 6/13, an auspicious date, Israel launched a pre-emptive strike to take out Iran’s nuclear capability, a country that has pledged to destroy Israel and wipe out the Jewish people. Earlier that same day, the Prime Minister davened at the Kotel, a seemingly innocuous gesture as he hosted a foreign leader. Together with the announcement he was going on vacation and attending a celebration, and the coordinated statements by President Trump, Secretary Rubio, and Steve Witkoff telling Israel not to attack, Iran was caught by surprise.
Mindbogglingly, the Mossad had been operating in Iran for years, setting up a base with drones that were smuggled in. Having eliminated the air defense, Israel’s extraordinary air force operated with impunity, flying more than 1,100 miles to relentlessly pound missile sites, attack nuclear sites and, in pinpoint strikes, eliminate Iranian nuclear scientists and military leaders all while brazenly refueling over Iran.
Israel orchestrated events that they knew would cause Iranian military leadership to gather and then took them out. Israel is the size of New Jersey and has 10 million people. Iran is more than twice the size of Texas and has 93 million people. We are witnessing nothing less than a modern-day version of David defeating Goliath.
This courageous action, in defiance of some world opinion and world leaders, is a gift to the world, just like it was when Israel took out Iraq and Syria's nuclear programs. Thankfully, despite the public posture designed to distract, in truth, President Trump and the United States stand with Israel, are coordinating with Israel and are helping defend Israel.
Gratitude and Angst
On Thursday night, when Israel launched its preemptive strike, we were filled with gratitude and elation, pride and joy in the unprecedented and heroic success. But those feelings were quickly tempered as Iran began to retaliate and launch waves of barrages of ballistic missiles, most of which have been intercepted but too many of which have gone through, taken lives, and caused scores of injuries.
There have been countless, extraordinary miracles and achievements. As this war with Iran continues to unfold, we are filled simultaneously with boundless gratitude and pride on the one hand but also profound concern, worry, and angst on the other. How do we balance these conflicting feelings?
Once, in the early years of his leadership, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi told his chassidim: “One must live with the times.” What he meant is that every day a Jew should “live with” and interpret everything happening through the messages and prism of Torah. The timing with which we read the weekly Parsha is not random but by design from Above and there is always a connection.
It is no coincidence that Israel courageously attacked Iran in the week the Torah portion tells us: “When you are at war in your land against an aggressor who attacks you, you shall sound short blasts on the trumpets, that you may be remembered before your God and be delivered from your enemies.”
This is the same Parsha that contains the promise: “Va’yehi binsoa ha’Aron…v’yafutzu oyvecha, v’yanusu misanecha mipanecha. When the Ark was to set out, Moshe would say: Advance, Hashem! May Your enemies be scattered, And may Your foes flee before You!”
Rashi explains: “Your enemies,” a phrase we address to Hashem, means that anyone who hates the Jewish people hates the Creator of the universe. Iran has targeted the Jewish people and in so doing has targeted our Father in Heaven. Iran has started up with the wrong enemy.
When the Aron sets out, when the Torah leads us, when we are proud Jews, God makes a promise that He will help us defeat our enemies. When the Prime Minister, the political leader of the Jewish state, the Commander in Chief of the Israeli military, goes to the Kotel to pray before launching an attack, the Ark is leading, our fighting is informed and inspired by our faith.
When the government chose a name for the operation, they didn’t use a military code word or a reference to a weapon, they quoted a pasuk from our sacred Torah – Hein am k’lavi yakum, we are a nation that rises like a lion. That is leading with the Aron, fighting for our people and our Torah.
With Faith and Fortitude
The Gemara (Berachos 12b) relates that at one time our rabbis contemplated adding the parsha of Balak, which includes the words of the wicked Bilam, into the seder to be said together with Shema. Why would we think it appropriate to quote daily a villainous prophet who hated our people, and why would we couple it with the iconic and central words of the Shema?
The Gemara itself tells us that what makes the words of Bilam so special are that they contain a pasuk comparing the Jewish people to a fearsome lion: “The Jewish people crouches; he lies like a lion and a lioness. Who dares rouse him?”
Rav Kook in Ein Aya explains that Bilam poetically compared the Jewish people first to a lion that rises and then to a sleeping lion that none dare disturb. Everyone who sees it rise and roar then fears the formidable powers of this majestic creature, even when it sleeps. Our people have survived against all odds, defying all the laws of history. We rise and rest like a lion so that we can continue to declare Shema. When we accept the yoke of Heaven, when we declare the unity of Hashem, we are indestructible.
In a world of variables, there are two constants. In a world that is temporary, there are two things permanent: Hashem as expressed through Shema, and the Jewish people, the lion who roars and rises when awake and who remains and is even feared when asleep.
We feel boundless gratitude to Israel’s heroic soldiers and the members of Israel’s air force. We recognize the selfless dedication of the Mossad agents who have lived for years in Iran undercover, forfeiting their Jewish identity and Jewish practice to protect the Jewish people. We appreciate the courageous leadership of Prime Minister Netanyahu. They all deserve credit, praise, admiration, and gratitude. Yes, they have dismantled Hezbollah, Hamas and pulled off amazing feats against Iran. But none of them could or would succeed without Hashem leading the way. We must never forget or fail to credit God with our survival, our existence and our future.
And that is why we can simultaneously be grateful to God and His agents for the success so far and also manage our concern and worry for the future. When we recognize and realize that God got us here, He enabled and empowered our success and He promises us that we will be here forever, that we will persevere and triumph, that He is fighting by our side.
Our people have not only survived but thrived against all odds, against the laws of history, despite countless attempts to annihilate and exterminate us. We have persevered with faith and fortitude, resilience and resolve. When our enemies try to destroy us, we our protected by Hashem.
To our lions in Israel, not only the courageous members of the military but each and every one of the 10 million living on the front line - we are giving you the biggest hug, sending the greatest love, and thanking you from the bottom of our hearts.