Hashem’s Call-up

Eight billion people make up the 195 countries of the world. Every year, over 5 billion people read the Bible.

What’s the difference between the 5 billion people reading the Bible and the 14 million Jews doing the same thing?

They read about God’s special relationship with them, while we are reading about God’s special relationship with us.

Hashem makes a very clear promise to the Jewish people:

If you follow My statutes and observe My commandments and perform them, I will give your rains in their time, the Land will yield its produce, and the tree of the field will give forth its fruit.

Your threshing will last until the vintage, and the vintage will last until the sowing; you will eat your food to satiety, and you will live in security in your land.

And I will grant peace in the Land, and you will lie down with no one to frighten [you]; I will remove wild beasts from the Land, and no army will pass through your land;

You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you; Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you. (Vayikra 26:3-8)

For everyone on earth, there is a concept of reward and punishment. For the Jewish People, everything is amplified massively. Every mitzvah we perform is an act of civic duty, contributing to the ultimate defense of our nation.

If we call up millions of people to serve in the army, we might be able to hold off our enemies for another generation – assuming the US, EU, or UN doesn’t stop us.

If millions of us increase our mitzvot, Torah learning, and personal holiness, Hashem will step in and personally fight our battles for us. Victory will be massive and overwhelming and there is nothing any nation, band of nations, or the United Nations can do about it!

This is our call to service: To follow His statutes and observe His commandments to merit His protection.

The Divine Call to Arms

This is God’s gius, or military call-up. He commands every Jew to serve Him. He makes it clear as day that His mitzvot protect us, and the more we observe them, the more He will protect us.

The more Jews performing mitzvot we have, the fewer soldiers we will need.

History proves it:

When the sea split, there were zero Jewish soldiers. The most powerful army on earth perished without a single battle. Hashem did everything.

When Gidon the Judge fought 130,000 Arabs, Edomites, and Amalekites, at Givat Ha’more in modern-day Afula, Hashem blessed us with a miraculous victory by destroying this massive military force with just 300 Jewish soldiers.

When the Assyrians fled before King Hezekiah, not a single Jewish soldier saw any “action.” It was all God.

The Maccabees defeated the most powerful military empire of the day with only a handful of men.

Today is no different.

In 1948, 1967, and 1973 we were outnumbered, outmanned, and the enemy had all the strategic advantages. On the eve of the Six Day War Israel was digging 10,000 graves in Tel Aviv – even we didn’t believe our army could win.

In 1973, Egypt waltzed past our forces along the Bar-Lev Line on the way to Tel Aviv. For days there was no army standing between them and the rest of Israel.

Even on October 7, 2023 there was little IDF in the Gaza Envelop area. A small smattering of civilian security guards kept Hamas from marching onto Ashkelon and Be’er Sheva.

We live on His miracles. We win on His miracles.

Am Yisrael Why?

We like to say “Am Yisrael Chai,” but for what? So we can fight another war? So we can endure another tragedy?

Why does the nation of Israel live? We are the children of Israel who live to fulfill the Torah of Israel in the Land of Israel and serve the God of Israel.

Winning is doing everything we can to annihilate our enemies.

Winning is using our greatest ally, Hashem, in overpowering our enemies in the US, EU, UN, and Arab world who are restraining us from creating a national eruv from the Euphrates to the Nile and making everything within these borders kosher, Shabbat compliant, and holy.

Winning is when the nations of the world stop suffocating us, and start basking in our light.

The key to winning is to accept God’s draft notice and to work harder in His service.

This is our eternal war against Amalek. Everybody fights, and at Hashem’s command, everybody wins!

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David Ben Horin lives in the Jezreel Valley with his family,  Afula’s famous sunflowers, and the local camel, Matilda. David loves to write about Judaism, Torah, Israel, and personal happiness.