Those who understand the modern State of Israel’s history know that the relationship between miracles and the nation extends beyond the biblical narrative.
Almost a month after he was shot four times by an Islamic jihadist, Rabbi Yehuda Glick was released from the hospital this week. Rabbi Glick had just finished giving a speech at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center on October 29, when his attacker shot him in the abdomen, lung, throat and hand.
Doctors at Jerusalem’s Shaare Tzedek hospital said that Glick’s survival alone was a miracle, not to mention his inexplicably rapid recovery.
Noting that none of the bullets severed any major arteries, Glick himself acknowledged his recovery as a “miracle” and thanked God, “who brings back life to the deceased.”
Renown for his peaceful approach towards Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, Glick can be seen greeting and praying with Arabs, promoting the idea that there is
room for both Jews and Muslims on the Temple Mount, the Jewish people’s holiest site. Glick praised the medical staff, emphasizing that his Muslim caregivers at Shaare Tzedek are the true representatives of Islam. These men and women honor life, rather than death.
“Anybody who shoots and kills someone in the name of his religion is the first person disgracing his religion,” Glick announced. “Those who are giving respect to Islam are those Muslim doctors and nurses who work at this hospital [by] helping people…. These are the people who are bringing respect to God and their religion – not those who murder in the name of religion.”
Even after being attacked, Glick is still convinced that understanding is attainable and that living side by side is possible.
Glick is not the only one to experience a miracle in the face of Israel’s most recent wave of terror. Indeed, accounts of recent miracles abound.
Modern Miracles
While most people are familiar with the miracles experienced by the ancient people of Israel in the Bible, those who understand the history of the modern State of Israel know that miracles played a major role in all of Israel’s wars – from the War for Independence in 1948 to this summer’s war in Gaza.
To this day, reports of miracles continue to stream in as people recognize that in spite of innumerable attempts to maim and murder Jews in recent months, casualties remain relatively low.
One of the miraculous events reported recently comes from the family of Shmuel Goldstein, who survived the barbaric Har Nof synagogue attack last week.
At the Synagogue
On the morning of the tragedy, Goldstein took his 12-year-old son to pray. During the terror attack on the synagogue, the terrorists seriously wounded Goldstein, but his son Mordechai managed to escape unharmed – physically, at least – by crawling out the door.
“He crawled on the floor so that nobody would notice him and escaped,” renowned educator Tzipora Heller, Goldstein’s mother-in-law, told Israel’s Ynet. “He arrived at his house, knocked on the door, his mother opened it and he told her everything that happened.”
This is especially miraculous considering that eye witnesses have reported that the terrorists specifically targeted people trying to escape.
At the Yeshiva
An even more recent miracle occurred over the Sabbath. On Friday night, two students from the Beit Orot Yeshiva on the Mount of Olives were ambushed and attacked on their way back from Sabbath evening prayers, about a 15 minute walk from the yeshiva.
As the boys were returning from services, they were ambushed by a group of Arabs who hurled rocks and at least one Molotov cocktail. They attacked the boys with crowbars and were swinging planks of wood with protruding nails.
The boys escaped the attack by running into the yeshiva building where medics were called. One of the boys was hospitalized with light to moderate wounds, the other was released after being treated.
The boys reported that it was clear that the attackers were waiting to ambush them and felt that it was a miracle that they escaped with relatively few injuries.
In Israel, Miracles are Reality
According to the oft-quoted aphorism of first Prime Minister of the modern State of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, “Anyone who does not believe in miracles is not a realist.” Many would say that in Israel, miracles are reality.
Tell us in the comments below: Have YOU experienced miracles in the Land of Israel? What are your reactions to the miracles discussed in the article above?
Author: Penina Taylor, United with Israel