| Shalom Pollock Exodus 23:28-
"And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee".
This unusual form of assistance to His people fighting their enemies in the Land of Israel has attracted the attention of biblical commentators. Of all things to aid a people fighting their enemies., bees/hornets?
One commentator (Rashi) explains that the hornets will flush out the enemy lying in wait, and expose them and their nefarious plans. The Midrash commentary explains that the hornets will blind and castrate our enemies! Hmm.., where have we seen that before?
Our teachers tell us that everything written in the Torah is meant for all generations. It is our generation that has merited to witness this hornet miracle leap right out of the pages of the Torah. You can't make this stuff up. Big things, huge things are happening at a dizzying pace. Our teachers have told us that in the Redemption period, events will develop very quickly.
Today we commemorate the first anniversary of the worst day of Jewish history since the Holocaust. Buckets of ink have been spilled describing the rivers of blood and tears of that day.
There is no need to repeat the descriptions of the events of those hours
In just a few hours of blood frenzy, Jews in the homeland relived the unspeakable horrors that our ancestors could never describe to us.
Many questions about that day demand answers. The most obvious ones are: Where the hell was the famed intelligence, army, and air force? Seven hours of absence while thousands of Jews were slaughtered, raped, beheaded, baked, and abducted. remain a black hole.
Yes, in the months, weeks, and days preceding the invasion, former generals, pilots, and prime ministers threatened that Israel would be defenseless if the elected government did not bow to their particular political demands. For the first time in Israel's history, a military putsch was threatened and succeeded as the government gave in. What happened before and during those seven hours of butchery is a secret that the putsch leaders will do their best to squelch.
At the same time, days before the invasion, in Tel Aviv, the same voices that had just bested the government continued their bullying tactics and attacked Jewish traditional prayer services in the public domain (Muslim mass prayers are allowed in Tel Aviv). Again, the mob won and closed down Jewish prayer in Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur. Israel was never so divided.
The enemy in Gaza and on all sides far and near, watched with amazement.
They had a well-conceived and prepared plan. Iran and its proxy terror armies groomed for decades, would attack at the given time. It was an attack that the experts told us Israel could not survive. Israelis lived for years in the shadow of that fatal day. That time was nearing.
But Hamas jumped the gun without informing its partners or its patrons in Teheran. There is no explanation for this strategic blunder. it is as logical as bees (or beepers?) fighting alongside God's people.
Since the Hamas invasion and that day of holocaust, Israel has stopped appeasing and began destroying.
Hezbollah joined the Hamas attack with just a fraction of their might, saving Israel from facing a two-front war that she could not win in those vital first few hours. Iran stayed out at that crucial time as well. So did the Houthis, the Arabs of Judea and | Samaria, and the Arab fifth column in Israel. Why? During the shock and paralysis of the seven hours of October 7, if all the above attacked according to plan. we would need a whole lot of hornets. And we received them in many miraculous forms.
So, what might change after our Godly salvation?
Will those kibbutzim savaged by their Arab neighbors continue to reach out to the "poor Gazans" or will they understand that they were willfully duped and it's time to wake up?
Will they understand that their Jewish brothers in Gush Katif should have been supported rather than attacked and jeered as they were expelled from their homes in favor of their Gazan Arab friends? How different Oct. 7 would have been?
Will we witness again Jewish youth dancing all night around a giant Buddha statue on our holy day in our Holy Land?
Will we conquer the lands of our forefathers from the invaders in Gaza and Lebanon and expel the enemy, annex, and settle the land as our Torah demands, or will we remain captive to the pre-Oct 7 bullies and their concepts?
On Oct 7 the God of Israel saved us from ourselves.
The hornets have done their job. Now it is our turn.
Tour guide and author, "Jews, Israelis and Arabs"
shalompollack613@gmail.com
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