The Kabbalistic tractate "Zohar" tells us that during the upcoming Redemption, G-d will perform many miracles for the people of Israel - just as He did during the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt, and as it is said in the book of the prophet Micha (7:15): "As in the days of your exodus from the land of Egypt, I will show him wonders" And now, in fact, this year, on the eve of Passover, we all actually witnessed incredible wonders of redemption and higher divine providence during the evil attack launched against Israel by the Iranian regime.
During the two weeks that followed the elimination in Damascus of seven high-ranking Iranian generals (including the regional head of the IRGC and his deputy - the actual masterminds behind most of the Iranian evil plots against Israel, including the "Catastrophe of the 7th of October"), we witnessed an unprecedented wave of vicious threats and intimidations by the Iranian regime's leaders and their proxies.
All this has undoubtedly led to significant public anxiety, prayers calling for the mercy of the Almighty (Blessed be He), strengthening of faith in His mercy, and, of course, to large-scale and comprehensive preparations of the country for a possible conflict, including a direct military offensive with Iran and its regional allies.
Last Saturday evening, an official warning was issued that "many dozens of attack drones have been sent from Iran towards Israel"!
According to published data, Israel was attacked with three waves of strikes, including approximately 190 "Shahed 136" attack drones (the same ones that the Russian army uses against the population of Ukraine), as well as even more advanced "Shahed 238" models, which carry warheads weighing tens of kilograms and have an extremely long range.
A few hours later, the criminal regime launched several more of its 36 or so cruise missiles toward Israel, flying at extremely low altitude. Such a flight very close to the ground made it virtually impossible for these missiles to be intercepted by Iron Dome or Arrow missile defense systems. For this reason, the Israeli Air Force's combat jets were trained in order to counter them, operating in combination with the "Magic Stick" ("David's Sling") missile defense system, which was designed precisely to counter the cruise missile threat.
Finally, during the third wave of the attack, the territory of Israel, mainly in its southern (Negev) and northern (Golan Heights) regions, was hit with another unprecedentedly heavy attack using more than 120 ballistic missiles.
What was the Iranian plan?
The huge number of missiles and attack drones launched by the Iranian regime was intended to "overload" Israel's anti-missile defense infrastructure, making it incapable of intercepting all enemy targets.
This was the plan of the Iranian fanatics - to create a situation in which Israel, attacked by hundreds of missiles and drones of various types invading our airspace almost simultaneously, would be unable to cope with the unprecedented number of air threats aimed at strategic military bases and other qualitative targets that had been carefully selected in advance by Iranian intelligence, and would eventually miss at least part of the strikes.
The enemies were particularly seeking to strike Nevatim Air Force Base, home to three squadrons of F-35 stealth aircraft, as well as several other strategic military facilities in the Golan Heights and the Jerusalem area. For this purpose, the Iranian regime used the most advanced weapons available to it.
Thus, the ballistic missiles that were launched at Israel were the most advanced Iranian model that entered service only a few years ago - the "Khyber Shikan" (rather than the old and already well-known "Shihab" models).
The cruise missiles that the regime used to attack Israel were the "Paveh-351" model, which entered service only last year and which have the advanced capability to coordinate a group of such missiles among themselves, as well as the ability to change course and direction of attack in order to mislead defense systems.
Finally, the attack drones, as already mentioned, were at least partially the latest model, the "Shahed 238" (rather than the "Shahed 136" supplied to Russia).
Altogether, according to the official report of the IDF Press Service, approximately 350 launches were made in the direction of Israel - 60 tons of explosives!
Unbelievable miracles!
After several hours of tense and exhausting waiting, joyful information started to arrive that our Air Force, together with the Air Forces of allied countries, had succeeded in destroying dozens of attack drones (over 70). Nevertheless, the main mass of enemy UAVs continued to move toward Israel, along with cruise missiles, soon joined by a heavy barrage of ballistic missiles, launched in such a way that they entered our airspace along with the rest of the threats and broke through the anti-missile defense system overwhelmed by the struggle against slow missiles and drones.
This barrage of ballistic missiles was precisely what triggered the many air raid alarms that went off that restless night in the southern region - in the cities of Be'er Sheva, Dimona, Arad, and at the "Hatzerim" and "Nevatim" air force bases.
And then, we witnessed real and incredible miracles - because almost all the ballistic missiles that posed the most serious threat to us were successfully shot down!
Only a few of these missiles broke through the Israeli defenses and fell unhit in the open, and one even caused minor damage to the Nevatim base without disrupting the operations of this large and important air force base.
The success of intercepting the enemy missiles was incredible and unprecedented, exceeding all expectations of our specialists, who frankly admitted it after the end of the night events.
Similarly, dozens of extremely dangerous cruise missiles were successfully intercepted, none of which eventually managed to penetrate Israeli airspace!
The same was true of more than a hundred attack drones. All of them were successfully shot down outside of Israeli territory!
99% of success is a miracle
Israeli leaders admit that the scale of the Iranian attack surprised them. A senior defense ministry official interviewed by the media said: "We faced a larger attack than we had anticipated." And yet, despite the huge number of threats and the difficulty of intercepting the most advanced Iranian model missiles and UAVs, the interception success rate of 99% was unbelievable!
Without the slightest doubt, we are talking about an unprecedented success, which has no analogues in the world practice, against the same unprecedented scale of air attack.
Even the U.S. was forced to admit that "Israel demonstrated exceptional capability." In other words, by the grace of G-d, Iranian intrigues and attempts to harm Israel have completely failed.
This is a tremendous success that was simply not expected. Undoubtedly, it was the result of the selfless work of dedicated specialists and fighters of the Israel Defense Forces, who professionally used the best missile defense systems in the world. Nevertheless, as the Torah teaches us, "remember the L-rd your G-d, for He gives you strength and power" (Dvarim 8:18) - the true source of our success is the Holy One, Blessed be He, the One who gives us strength and power, eternally watching over us and protecting us.
Two types of wonders.
The Hasidic tradition speaks of two types of wonders. The first are supernatural wonders that clearly violate the physical laws of nature, such as the wonder when the waters of the Red Sea separated. But there is also a second type of wonders - "miracles hidden under the covered of the natural course of things ". In fact, this is the majority of miracles that accompany each of us in our daily lives.
These miracles often find their embodiment in collective or personal salvation, which we feel and experience as a special divine blessing and providence, but at the same time not violating the laws of physics, but rather, as if "disguised" as ordinary events. To an outside observer, this may even seem like a natural course of events, even though its miraculous nature will be quite clear and obvious to those who experience such salvation. This is what we call a "miracle clothed in a nature".
An example of such a miracle, for instance, is the Purim story, where all the events seem to happen in the most natural way, but it is clear to us that it was in fact a divine revelation and a great miracle of redemption. It is not without reason that an important holiday was established in its honor.
In Hasidism it is considered that the spiritual essence of the "miracle clothed in nature" is higher and more elevated than the essence of supernatural miracles.
The point is that in the "natural miracle" two opposites are combined at once: the "natural" is united with the "supernatural". We believe that such a union can take place only on a very high divine level - where opposites are united, only there can such different contradictory essences be combined.
We are convinced that we witnessed just this kind of miracle during the dramatic night of Iranian missile intercepts. No one - not in the IDF, not in the country's political leadership, not among ordinary Israelis - expected that such powerful salvos of 350 deadly ballistic missiles, difficult-to-intercept cruise missiles and dangerous attack drones would be defeated with such incredible, extraordinary success, far beyond ordinary statistics, with essentially no casualties and only minor damage.
It was truly unexpected, especially after two weeks of nervous anticipation and a lot of apprehension. We are convinced that this incredible success and truly great rescue filled the hearts of many with a sincere sense of gratitude to the Almighty.
As it is written, "Praise the Lord for He is good, for His kindness is Everlasting." All over the Israel and around the world there are prayers of thanksgiving to G-d for His great and many miracles - "miracles clothed in nature." The miracle of such a flawless interception looks like a natural result of the brilliant work of our specialists and fighters, yet this incredible success, contrary to estimates and expectations of a much less dangerous attack than actually happened, clearly teaches us that it is still nothing less than an incredible miracle of the Almighty.
The promise and prophecy of the Lubavitcher Rebbe SHLITA King Moshiach is that our generation is the generation of Redemption, which will come very soon, and that the Land of Israel is "the safest place in the world." We should thank G-d for this, for all His great miracles, and strengthen our faith in G-d and in the miraculous unfolding of the process of Redemption, praying for its speedy coming in mercy and goodness, strengthening ourselves by studying Torah and practicing the commandments, getting into the essence of Hasidic teachings, which clarify many fundamental issues of our daily life and show us how each of us can bring ourselves closer to our Heavenly Father, and together with this lead to the early coming of Redemption.