KI TISA 5786

 The War in Iran is Biblical

 The Purim story we read from the Megillah of Esther this week does not end with the hanging of Haman and his sons after Esther exposed Haman’s attempt to kill her and her people. You see, Haman’s genocidal decree to kill the Jews was signed by the king and, therefore, remained in force. The turning point came a couple of months later—on the 23^rd of Sivan (Ester 8:9)—when the king agreed to send out another decree of law to allow the Jews to defend themselves on the 13^th of Adar—the date of Haman’s proposed slaughter of the Jews. With the king’s support the Jews were overwhelmingly successful.

 This past June, the 23^rd of Sivan fell out precisely in the middle of the 12-day war against Iran also fought by Israel and the USA. As in the Purim story, the Jewish people exercised their right to defend themselves against a Persian regime that repeatedly called for their destruction.

  There’s an astounding alignment between what is happening in Iran now and what happened there 2,400 years ago in what was then called Persia. Today, the world is safer because the murderous jihadi regime—the Islamic Republic of Iran—has been stopped in its pursuit of nuclear weapons … stopped in stockpiling long‑range ballistic missiles … stopped in oppressing the Iranian people …stopped in spreading terror across the world … and stopped in trying to create another holocaust of Jews.

 To view what is happening strictly in military terms would be mistaken. It’s Biblical! It’s prophetic—the same Author writing in the same language, using the same calendar. It’s no coincidence that this war with Iran unfolded during the week of Purim—the holiday marking the prevention of a holocaust of the Jews of ancient Persia. The parallels are chilling.

 The Megillah of Esther recounts how, 2,400 years ago, Haman planned to kill every Jew in the world. Letters were sent to all 127 provinces of Persia: “to destroy, to slay, and to exterminate all the Jews, from young to old, children and women, in one day—the 13^th day of Adar.” Haman was Prime Minister to King Achashverosh, who ruled over the Persian Empire that spanned most of known world. Every Jew then lived under their control. Had Haman succeeded, he would have destroyed the Jewish people.

 Haman set the 13^th of Adar as the date for the mass killing. But through a miraculous chain of events set in motion by Queen Esther’s courageous intervention, the Jews were given the legal right and resources to fight back and defeat their enemies. We celebrate this on Purim—the 14^th of Adar—the day the Jews were finally safe and sound.

 Gd’s name does not appear in the Megillah, but His fingerprints are everywhere. Events that appear accidental, coincidental, in hindsight reveal Gd’s plan. It just so happens that Esther is the queen … it just happens that Mordechai saves the king from an assassination plot and the king reads about it the night he can’t sleep which is just before he’s about to meet Haman … but none of these things just happen. As Albert Einstein famously said: “Coincidence is Gd remaining anonymous!”  

 So toonow. Gd’s name does not appear on Fox News or CNN, but His fingerprints are everywhere. The miracles of the past few days are part of a chain of events set in motion since October 7^th, when everything changed. Iran built proxy armies surrounding Israel—Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis—stockpiled tens of thousands of missiles and relentlessly pursued nuclear weapons. Israel’s 7 million Jews, concentrated in a small country, would be sitting ducks. Now the proxy armies are in disarray, and the Iranian regime stands at the brink of defeat.

 Consider some of the miracles:  

-When Hamas attacked from Gaza on October 7^th, surprisingly, Hezbollah did not join from the north, and Iran did not unleash its missile arsenal simultaneously.

-The defeat of Hamas and the release of all the hostages were miraculous.

-It certainly was a miracle that Israel survived tens of thousands of rockets, missiles and drones—children walked to shul under an iron dome that did not exist 20 years ago.

-The crippling of Iran in the 12-Day War last June was a miracle.

-We forget how Syria threatened Israel for 75 years. The fall of Assad and the neutralization of the Syrian threat was a miracle.

-And, of course, among the miracles were Israeli operations deep within enemy territories like the Hezbollah beepers and the elimination of enemy leaders.

-Would you have believed last week if some told you that this week Lebanon would criticize Hezbollah for attacking Israel?

 And there is much more which may nor seem to be miracles, but are nevertheless miraculous:

-Did you know that Israel had accessed Tehran’s traffic‑camera system, using it to map movements of senior Iranian officials, especially Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

-Israeli generals duped the Iranians the night before the attack by making sure to be publicly seen leaving their headquarters. Iranian intelligence expected that the coast would be clear for the weekend. The generals then snuck back into the building wearing disguises. The Ayatollah and his generals then felt free to have a breakfast meeting above ground instead of their underground bunker. Every single Iranian leader is now either dead, missing or sweating bullets in a bunker.

-Israel had been implanting spies in Iran for decades—getting them placed in the most sensitive areas. It has been reported —the Mossad refuses to verify it—that: Undercover agents infiltrated as doctors and dentists in Iran. The Dentists gave priority to key military, and elite Iranian personnel. While doing routine dental checkups, they implanted tracking devices alongside the cavity fillings.

Gastroenterologists implanted similar devices in you know where in their elite patients. Mossad knew exactly where each one of them was and sent a missile present.

-Over 400 elite military in government personnel were eliminated when Israel attacked.

Amazing! Miraculous!

 For 47 years—during the reign of the Ayatollahs—the State of Israel has lived under relentless threats, fear, sirens, terror, and uncertainty. Terrorist attacks such as bus bombings, suicide bombings, waves of street stabbings, cars ramming into crowds of Israelis, and rockets from Hezbollah and Hamas. Added to that is the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American servicemen and the 1994 Jewish community center bombing in Buenos Aires that murdered 85. All of these were funded, armed, trained, and encouraged by the Iranian regime.

 How can we not open our eyes to these modern‑day Purim miracles and give thanks to Gd and to His emissaries. In the ancient story, Gd’s emissaries were Mordechai, Esther, and the brave fighters who defended their communities. Today we give thanks for the bravery of the Israeli people, who have endured so much since October 7^th … a civilian army mobilized overnight, reservists leaving families and livelihoods, and hostages held for hundreds of days. We give thanks for the IDF’s great courage and wondrous abilities.

 We give thanks to the US Armed Forces and their Commander in Chief President Donald Trump—without whom we would never have been so successful. We are grateful as well to all the other countries that are now helping—seemingly disparate elements that have come together to save the Iranian people from a murderous regime, to prevent another Jewish Holocaust, and to protect the world from global jihad.

 My friends, the Hand of Hashem is visible if we but open our eyes. The Sin of the Golden Calf that we read about in today’s Torah portion was the result of the people looking for a physical manifestation of Gd. With Moses on the Mountain, they panicked and made a Golden Calf. But we don’t need a physical manifestation of Gd. We just need to open our eyes and recognize the miraculous chesed (kindness) of Hashem wherever we look. Amen!