An Army Rabbi recounts the extraordinary desire of IDF soldiers to go with G-d during Operation Cast Lead.
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Fighters’ Jewish Spirit Returns
(Thanks: Arutz Sheva)
An IDF rabbi shared this personal testimony…
I had the privilege this week [the week before the ground offensive into Gaza – ed.] of accompanying the Golani Brigade’s Regiment 12 soldiers. I am the regiment’s rabbi, in reserves, and I was called up to serve just like the all the rest, to “aid Israel at its time of tribulation.”
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My work, as an official of the Army Rabbinate, was to give encouragement and strength to the soldiers, give out Books of Psalms [Tehillim] and distribute special prayers for those who go out to battle.
Psalms for All
And what did I discover down there in southern Israel? My brothers! The Golanchiks (Golani Brigade soldiers), about to go out to war, want to hold on to the Rock of Israel! There wasn’t a soldier there who didn’t equip himself with a Tehillim in his pocket or combat vest – but the big surprise we had was when we gave out tzitzit [four-cornered shirt with the required ritual fringes attached]. Usually only the yeshiva guys take them, but this time, every soldier there seemed to want one!
“Rabbi, bring me some tzitzit, my whole tent wants.” “Hey, achi [my brother], take one of these, it’s better than the ceramic vest!” These were the types of calls we kept hearing over and over. Every package of tzizit that we opened was snatched up within seconds.
There was one young fighter who came to the synagogue whose face fell when he heard that there were no tzitzit left. He was totally bereft, until one of the officers who wasn’t going out to battle took off his own tzitzit and gave it to him, saying, “Take it, achi (in the Golani you can’t say something without achi), you need it now more than I do.”
The Ma’ariv evening prayer of Friday night, Parashat Vayigash, was simply unbelievable. The Rabbinate realized that the synagogue was too small to fit all the hundreds of soldiers, and so it turned the soccer field into an impromptu synagogue, with prayerbooks, Holy Ark, and everything else.
Whoever did not take part in that Kabbalat Shabbat [Sabbath Welcoming] service, is like one who never took part in a Kabbalat Shabbat service in his life! Almost the entire Golani Brigade, officers and soldiers, yelling out the Kaddish and Tehillim prayers. If it wasn’t for the uniform I was wearing, I could have almost thought that I was at a Yom Kippur service in one of the large yeshivot!
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No Dispute
I will just end by saying that where I live in Modi’in Illit, we have a clever interpretation of the verse ‘G-d’s voice is powerful’: The word for ‘power’ is spelled with the letters kaf and chet, which we say are the initials of kova and chalifa [hat and suit], our usual garb. But as of this week, we now know that they are also the initials of the kumtah chumah [brown beret] worn by the Golani soldiers. There, too, the voice of G-d is heard – and “lo pligi” (there is no argument between the two, both are right).
[I highly Suggest You Read The Rest]
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Like most Israelis, the IDF and The Golani Unit (unlike the Nahal Haredi) are particularly non-religious. Thus, this strong desire of Golani Unit soldiers to have Tehillim, Tzitzit, and participate in services is quite unique.
When I pair this renewed desire of the usually secular IDF soldiers with the fact that the Israeli public overwhelmingly supports the Operation, and the miracle number of exceptionally few Israeli dead – compared to the high casualties they have inflicted on their enemies, I am inspired to believe that something much larger is going on.
