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During difficult moments, people seek out their
faith and return to their roots. Every soldier has
moments when he stops for a moment to think, and
when you stop and think you also identify with your
historical background, with everything that brought
you to this moment, with the continuation of the
path, and with the same faith that Am Yisrael has
taught for generations upon generations.
Lieutenant Colonel, Battalion Commander,
Paratroopers

Let someone come now and try to argue that we
are not an am segulah, a treasured nation… During
peacetime, I know some of the chevra rebelled We reached the unit when it was already completely
against words like this, about being an am segulah. dark. Tanks were returning from their missions in
It’s chaval; I don’t know how to pray, but if I did I Egypt. Suddenly I heard the sound of singing. Tens of
would get up every morning and thank the G-d of soldiers were sitting in a small sukkah, passionately
Israel – not in a negative way, by saying “for not singing “HaRachaman hu yakim lanu et Sukkat David
making me a gentile,” but rather “for making me a haNofalet,” “May the Merci ful One raise up for us
Jew.” In my first war, I didn’t yet feel this way, but the fallen Tabernacl e of David.” After many days of
from war to war I feel that I am becoming, more very difficult battles, there was an atmosphere of
and more, a Jew. holiness and high morale in that sukkah. The officer
Ma’ariv, Interview with a Phantom Pilot who was invited to the sukkah said: “With morale as
high as this, we don’t have anything to worry about.”
Eliezer Sheffer, HaTzofeh

During these days and hours, the Jewish spark was
lit within every Jew in Am Yisrael. We were over-
come with a feeling of mitzvah, for we knew that Many soldiers here put on tefillin every day – and not
with our bodies we were contributing to the defense only the religious soldiers. We’ve already reached
of the nation and the Land. And on the other hand, the point where we no longer need to remind them.
we also felt natural human fear. With these two They come of their own initiative and ask for the
emotions, we fulfilled “v’gilu bir’ada”, “Rejoice in tefillin. Some of them already know the berachot by
trembling” (Tehillim 2:11). heart and the order for putting on the tefillin.
El Michutz LaChomot Mordechai Bar Dagan, Yeshivat Bnei Akiva,
Pirchei Aharon

What we can conclude from this terrible war is this: It’s hard to believe how the war changed people.
that the verse “Hashem will fight for you, and you Young men who were eating on Yom Kippur now put
shall remain silent” (Shemot 14:14) is so real that on tefillin every day, and plan to continue doing so
it is more real than reality itself. It’s simply impos- going forward. I wonder if this is one of the reasons
sible to understand how such awesome miracles Hashem brings wars like this upon us, even with all
occurred, which saved the lives of dozens of us at the tragedy that comes with them.
the base. Even the atheists in our group cannot
grasp the wonders of the Creator. It simply cannot David Farjun, Yeshivat Bnei Akiva, Kfar HaRoeh
be described in words.
Ya’akov Krotenberg, Yeshivat Bnei Akiva, Pirchei Aharon
 Originally published in Hebrew in Milchemet Yerach HaEitanim (1974).
Translated by Rabbi Elie Mischel.

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