45 Years Ago Today

It was before I was born, but  my son's teacher told me that he remembers in the month of Iyar 5767, all the parks in Yerushalaim were dug to be mass graves.  Nasser was announcing his plans to "throw the Jews into the sea".   Jews world over were worried.  Without a Jewish State, even the most anti-Zionist galuti Jew knew that another Holocaust would not be long in coming.

And then, 45 years ago today, The Israeli Air Force wiped out the Egyptian air force.  In one short attack.   HaShem set things up so perfectly, as only He can, so that the Egyptians thought that it was a Jordanian entourage flying over Sinai.

The Six Day War, that broke out on the 26th of Iyar , 45 years ago today, was a Nes Galui that one has to work hard to be ignorant enough to ignore.  The Messirut Nefesh of the fighters cannot be taken for granted either

And yet, ignore it, people do.  Take it for granted, people do.

There is the famous joke about the man who is trying to find parking in town.   He closes his eyes and offers Hashem a deal - if You give me a parking space, I will start keeping Shabbat.   When he opens his eyes, our driver sees an open parking spot to his right.  Without missing a beat, our driver turns his head upward and says, "Never mind, I found one myself."

This week, in a neighbourhood in Yerushalaim, in an area which was our border with Jordanian snipers before the Six Day War, we saw a traffic circle in which the municipality had placed a large clock, under which there was the symbol of Yerushalaim.  The symbol is a wall of Har HaBayit and a lion to symbolize Malchut Beit David, surrounded by the Olive Branches of Zecharia’s nevua.   This holy symbol was defaced.   "Never mind," silently state the vandals,  "we don't need HaShem or His Chosen Messengers.  We found this spot ourselves.  We protected it from the Jordanians on our own.  We paved the streets, laid stone on the sidewalks, installed the infrastructure and built the neighbourhoods by ourselves.  We don't owe anyone any thanks."

Wishing all of us Six Days of true gratitude to HaShem and His Chosen Messengers for the miracles He bestows upon us, as individuals and as a Nation.