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KOL NIDRE 5784
In the streets of Israel, the sirens suddenly sounded. Yom Kippur would never be the same. We American Jews would never be the same. When those sirens pierced the air, the Jews in Israel were assembled in their synagogues, praying and fasting on their most holy day. The eerie wails of sirens filled them with disbelief and horror, for they sensed it was announcing a disaster—that only 25 years after the Holocaust –could mean the destruction of the State of Israel. We, who were assembled in our synagogues on that infamous Yom Kippur—exactly 50 years ago—knew that it was Israel’s Pearl Harbor—certainly a day of infamy. Shock, grief and uncertainty filled us with a sinking helpless feeling.
As we sat in shul, crushed and despondent, we instinctively felt the heartrending scenes that were transpiring in Israel. The mobilization of the young and middle-aged men rushing from the synagogues, draped in their talesim, still holding in their hands their machzorim—a shamas reading from the pulpit the names of those to report for duty, a rabbi blessing and kissing his own son farewell on the bima of his shul, a soldier asking his rabbi permission to ride on Yom Kippur to his mobilization assignment.
How bad was it? In Howard Blum’s book, The Eve of Destruction: The Untold Story of the Yom Kippur War, there are some amazing revelations. The book tells us that Israel had a plan to launch nuclear weapons to destroy Egypt and Syria if indeed the State of Israel was destroyed and that Golda Meir prepared cyanide suicide pills to take in the event that this happened. In the 1st 3 days, 1300 Israelis died with 1100 more to follow.
It’s been 50 years and yet, it’s still so terrifying just to recall what happened. How did this happen? How did this happen, when in 1967, in the 6-Day War, in just 6 days, Israel proved its ability to overcome all of the forces in the Middle East? And how could this happen when we had such good, advanced warning? When we had a Shin Bet and a Mossad and some of the best spy operators in the entire world? And how did this happen when we had we had arial pictures of the armies in Egypt, in Syria, in Jordan massing on the borders? Why didn’t we act? Where did we go wrong?
This question was asked so intelligently by Rabbi Doron Perez—executive chairman of World Mizrahi. In a recent Mizrahi publication, he wrote: The failure which led to the surprise attack was a devastating mistake in the realm of thought, a conceptual blunder. It was a mental Paradigm embraced and believed in blindly by Israeli’s intelligence, leadership and top military and political brass; a conceptual blindness which became known simply as “the concept.” The concept made perfect sense to the leaders of Israeli and American intelligence. He continues: The concept was like this: Egypt will never initiate a war until they have the air power to overcome Israel’s Air Force. Syria will never attack alone unless Egypt attacks as well, since Egypt clearly does not have the ability to defeat the Israeli Air Force, they definitely won’t attack and therefore neither will Syria. In short, there is no way that Egypt and Syria will initiate a war they cannot win.
That was the concept. It turns out the concept was obsolete. Sadat and other Arab leaders were prepared to go to war knowing they might NOT win, but feeling that they would at least return respect and honor to the Arab masses—respect and honor which had been demolished in the 6-Day War.
Professor Daniel Kahnemann, the Israeli Nobel Prize winner, coined the phrase “Illusion of Validity” for this phenomenon. He points out that: We tend to think that our own opinions and intuitions are correct. We tend to overlook [even] hard data that contradict our worldview and to dismiss arguments that don’t coincide with our own conception of things. We operate under the illusion that our ideas and intuitions are valid, and we don’t let facts or opposing views get in our way. To me this sounds like today’s politics on all sides.
This “illusion of validity” leads us to innumerable errors, unnecessary confrontations. It happens among world leaders and in happens in our lives. If we could be more open to honest, self-reflective thinking, willing to entertain new ideas and to correct erroneous assumptions, we would find ourselves in a better, happier and more humane world.
The fact of the matter is that too often we don’t even allow FACTS to get in our way. We stick to our concepts—our illusions of validity. Do you do that?
· Do you treat your loved ones according to how you think one should be treated without a thought to who they really are, and what’s best for them?
· Do you buy brands of items again and again because 10 years ago they were the best without a thought that there might be something better?
· There are Jews you and I know who won’t even try our shul—a Modern Orthodox shul—because their preconception of an what an orthodox shul is, is too restricting.
In some ways, we all do this! We think that what we think is correct, no matter what the facts are! We think our lives are fine the way they are—that we have no need to do much more to become better, to grow and get closer to Hashem and His Torah. We have “illusions of validity” in our lives—that our lives are just fine the way they are. Why change anything? But Yom Kippur is all about getting us to do teshuva, to change.
Kol Nidre is the optimal time for teshuva, for repentance, for changing. Teshuva (repentance)—Maimonides teaches—applies not just to acts of sin. Teshuva, he contends, extends even more significantly to values, inclinations and emotions that directly affect us. So, on this sacred Kol Nidre night, let us rethink and re-examine our own “illusions of validity.” Down deep we know we need to change; we know we could do better—be better.
Getting back to Israel and the Yom Kippur War. Yes, there are significant lessons to be learned, and no, I’m not worried about Israel’s future. In fact, I’m so very optimistic. Let me tell you why. 1st of all, we are Gd’s people in Gd’s land experiencing many miracles JUST when we need them—not the least of which is the very existence of the Jewish State. From Israel’s perspective, if you don’t believe in miracles, you are not a realist!
In the Yom Kippur War, for example, there were many miracles. Let me just share 3 that stand out. In the south the Egyptian tank divisions that crossed over the Suez Canal had nothing to stop them from advancing straight into central Israel. Yet they suddenly stopped—no one knows why!
Number 2: At the same time in the north, the Syrians poured out of the Golan Heights with 600 tanks making their way down the valley towards Tel Aviv. There was really nothing to stop them. Yet when they got within sight of the Israeli Head Quarters and the Sea of Galilee, they also mysteriously stopped. There are stories that the Israelis in their desperation stationed a soldier here and there in different positions. Then they had them radio back and forth to each other about their large groups of tanks and troops that were really never there—knowing the Syrians were listening in. The Syrians, remembering their devastating loss in the 6-Day War, became fearful and stopped!
What makes this story incredible was that the Israeli Head Quarters by the Golan Heights was manned by just 10 men and 4 tanks! 10 men and 4 tanks were the only thing that stood between the Syrian army’s 600 tanks and the utter destruction of the State of Israel! By the end of the war the Israeli army was just outside of Cairo in the south and just outside of Damascus in the north. Astonishing! Miraculous!
One more. This one is so amazing: Outnumbered, Israeli Commander David Yinni was preparing a retreat when he realized that he and his men were trapped in the middle of a minefield. One of his men began to pray. Suddenly, a mysterious windstorm came upon them. It was so strong that it rocked their heavy tanks—weighing several tons! By the time the storm moved on, it had literally blown off 30 inches of topsoil! The Israeli soldiers could then see every single mine and quickly made their escape. Baruch Hashem!
And, my friends, the miracles continue today. As you know, Israel has now become the world’s center for technological innovation in almost every field. And to top it all off, remember the joke we used to tell about how Moses wouldn’t ask for directions when he left Egypt? If Moses had made a right turn when he took us out of Egypt instead of going straight north, we would have been in Saudi Arabia and we would have had all that oil instead of a land of “milk and honey” and sand. Well, it turns out that Israel is now and exporter of oil and gas like Saudi Arabia! And furthermore, Israel is a pioneer in the developing technology of electric cars that don’t need Saudi Oil.
Let me remind you about perhaps the most amazing miracle of all—the Abraham Accords. 3 years ago, Israel signed accords with the United Arab Emirates. Now Israel has diplomatic offices in Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan—with Saudi Arabia, more or less, a silent partner and probably soon to officially sign on. Egypt and Jordan have joined the group. Flights now connect Israel with all of them. There are official visits in these Arab countries, Glatt Kosher restaurants in these Arab countries, conferences in Israel, business deals being made at a furious pace. Think about it, this is what real peace is supposed to feel like, isn’t it?
To understand how miraculous all this is, you need to remember that when the State of Israel was created in 1948, Israel offered to make peace with its Arab neighbors who responded by vowing to push all its Jews into the sea, and stating their “3 no’s—No peace with Israel; No recognition of Israel; No negotiations with Israel!”
And by far, the biggest miracle of all is the Israeli spirit. Wow! This is our people! Let us rise and sing together: Oseh shalom bimromav hu yaaseh shalom aleynu v’al kol Yisrael v’imru amen, “May Gd who makes peace on high make peace upon us and upon all Israel. Amen!”
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