Thin Thread of Faith

Thin Thread of Faith


Today marks day five of Operation Cast Lead, a campaign which like the Second Lebanon War our government bumbled into without giving too much thought to where it might lead. Every couple of minutes another missile flies through the air, hopefully destined to land in an empty field not on someone’s head. At first the targets were Netivot, Sederot, Ashkelon then Ashdod, Kiryat Malachi and Yavne and today Beesheva. On the radio news Bibi ominously predicted what might come next (G-d forbid) attacks on Holon, Tel Aviv and Beit Shemesh. Already thousands are packing up and fleeing the South, but to where?
Our sages say that at the end of days all illusions will be shattered. We’ve already seen a lot of this, from the almighty dollar to the financial markets and now here goes another sacred cow, the illusion of the IDF that the army is protecting us. Don’t get me wrong. Our soldiers are the best but without Hashem Yisborach behind them our army is nothing. If we want to succeed, we’ve got to take our cue from Yosef HaTzadik who was called righteous because the name of G-d was always on his tongue. It’s all Hashem. There is nothing but Hashem, no independent power, not Hamas, not the Arab oil cartel, not the US government and not the IDF. Once we really get that we will be safe.
Without that we are all in danger. Down south, up north, in the country’s midsection, even in Chutz La’Aretz. Look at the Mumbai terror attacks. If your number is up it can come up anywhere. There isn’t anywhere to run to, some fallout shelter, some cave to hide in, but look around. There is simply no where to go, except Hashem, only Hashem Himself to cling to and we’ve got to trust Him, that He is running the show , that He knows what He’s doing.
Right now we are just like the Jews on Europe standing on line to the gas chamber. but then again, we are the people who emerged from the gas chambers. Not all of our physical bodies but, the Jewish people as a whole.
These are very dark days, but like the darkness in Egypt this darkness will be followed by a great light. Our job now is to hang in, to fix whatever it is we need to fix within our selves, to improve relationships within our families and our communities so we can be truly deserving of the great light that Hashem is just waiting to give us.