by Haadam Yashar
It has been 50 years since those “miraculous days”. In June, 1967 the Jewish world was electrified by the “open miracles” of The Six Day War. No doubt you will be reading much about this in the 50 year anniversary “special editions” of our Jewish media. Leave it up to the Hamodia, Mishpacha, Ami, and all the rest out there, to describe the special “magic in the air” of those days. I challenge anyone to count how many times they’ll encounter the word “miracle” in our “Heimishe media” throughout the next few weeks.
Back then, every Jew was celebrating. Every Jew was ecstatic. Every Jew was proud. Every Jew felt Moshiach in the air.
Except for one man tucked away on Bedford Avenue in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn New York.
We are of course referring to the Satmar Rav. In those days, the wide consensus was that this 80 year old man has simply gone insane – maybe a form of dementia – or something of the sort. Just ask anyone who remembers. It was not pleasant being a Satmar Chasid back then – to say the least. After all – their Rebbe was accused by the overwhelming majority of Klal Yisroel of having “heretical beliefs” which simply contradicted the “clear facts on the ground”.
The Satmar Rav insisted that no miracles had occurred at all, and thereby expressed his opinion that visiting any of the newly “liberated” lands – including the Kosel Hamaravi – must be avoided, since in his opinion, the Chizuk for Reshaim (the wicked) and Apikorsus (heresy) that would result from this would outweigh any other positive effects that visiting these territories would have. In the 4 weeks following The Six Day War, each Shabbos, he explained, pleaded, shouted, and cried to Klal Yisroel. But of course his pleas fell on deaf ears. And who can blame them? They were a generation who just a mere 22 years before witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust, and were sure that Moshiach must now be on the way. And sure enough – just 3 years later came the “miracles” of 1948, followed by the “miracles” of 1956, and the “ultimate miracles” of 1967.
The truth of the matter is, that while Jews everywhere were crying tears of joy for experiencing “open miracles”, the Satmar Rav was crying tears as well – but for a different sort of “miracles”. Just to mention a few:
The “liberated territories” of The Six Day War, would cost the lives of thousands upon thousands of Jews. Many more thousands upon thousands were injured and maimed. And, in the years to follow, there would be more victims, both through countless wars and countless terrorist attacks. That otherwise Torah observant Jews would still consider this “liberation” worthwhile – is a “miracle” that he cried about.
The crown jewel of this “liberation” – namely the Kosel Hamaravi and the Har Habayis, which was the Jewish focal point of spirituality and connection to HaShem for thousands of years, has been transformed by the Six Day War into a tourist attraction no different than what the Great Wall is to China, and what the Eiffel Tower is to France. That otherwise Torah observant Jews would still consider this “liberation” worthwhile – is again a “miracle” that he cried about.
However, there is another “miracle” which is overlooked, on which I would like to elaborate a bit. It is a widely accepted fact that countless secular Jews have been transformed into serious ba’alei teshuva by the experience of the stunning events of The Six Day War.
I wonder how many have taken notice of this following thought-pondering fact: There is of course no one who could have possibly known better the extremely perilous position that the State of “Israel” was in right before the commencement of The Six Day War than the top Israeli government officials and top military brass themselves. And yet, we do not find any of these “war heroes” who have been transformed into ba’alei teshuva by experiencing these miraculous events!
Not Levi Eshkol.
Not Moshe Dayan.
Not Yitzchak Rabin.
Not Shimon Peres.
Not Golda Mayer.
Not Ariel Sharon.
Not David Ben Gurion.
None at all.
We did not find a single one of them, or anyone close to their position, starting to keep Shabbos, or starting to eat kosher or starting to observe any sort of Yiddishkeit at all. Not a single one of them. The obvious question is: Why not? Why didn’t these indisputable open miracles transform them, and bring them closer to their Father in Heaven, at least in the same manner that they transformed countless soldiers serving then in the IDF as well as countless Jews around the globe? Who better than them, who knew the truth of how close the Jewish nation was to witnessing another Auschwitz, and then up front and center, witnessed the impossible miraculous turnaround? Who better than them saw Yad Hashem in full view?
The answer to this question lies in recently declassified files of the CIA. There was one other government whose top officials knew as well as the Israelis the extent as to exactly how perilous the situation for Israel was. Right before the war started. This was the government who, as always, makes sure to provide Israel with the most military aid possible. The United States of America.
In May 1967, when it was all but certain that war would break out any day, the CIA briefed then president Lyndon Johnson with a detailed analysis of the military capabilities of Israel and her Arab neighbors with the conclusion of the likely outcome of the war according to their intelligence. These truly eye-opening documents reveal for all to see that, well, the Satmar Rav wasn’t so senile after all.
The Satmar Rav emphasized that the events of the Six Day War were a completely natural occurrence without any trace of miracles whatsoever. He stated that even though this is true according to simple military analysis, nevertheless, his focus was on bringing clear Torah sources to prove his point, which he promptly did.
Upon reviewing the US assessment it quickly becomes clear that the Rav’s supposedly fanatical view was also the clear and undisputed opinion of virtually all the people in the know. It was an assessment that actually proceeded to unfold exactly according to their evaluation.
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