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The current war with Hamas is focusing on a new and frightening element, one which did not feature prominently in any previous war. Until now, our wars have included soldier-to-soldier combat, tanks, planes, bridges, ships, airports and weapons, but during Operation Protective Edge much of the focus has been on a new threat: the tunnels.

For the first time, the threat is not above ground, it's hidden below. Over the years Hamas has created a virtual labyrinth of tunnels beneath the ground. The deadly network originates from basements and private homes in Gaza and extends into Israel - a tool for mass terrorist attacks against Jews.

In order to counter this threat, the IDF has had to dig deep, under hospitals, mosques and private homes, where they've discovered caches of weapons, guns, machine guns, RPG rocket launchers, tranquilizers, IDF uniforms and more - all deadly weapons with the potential to inflict untold harm on the Jewish nation.

Operation Protective Edge has exposed these tunnels, but it has also created a new kind of tunnel: tunnels of love.

During this war, we've dug deep into ourselves and discovered powerful tunnels of love crisscrossing our nation, connecting us to one another and to our brothers and sisters in Israel. We are, regardless of outward differences, a nation that cares deeply.

My brother, Dr Motti Vigler, chief of hand surgery at Rabin medical center, dropped everything this week in order to attend the funeral of someone he had never met. Lone soldier Sean Carmeli was killed in battle, and his family all live in America. When my brother arrived, he discovered 20,000 people had come to the funeral to honor this brave hero.

A day later another lone soldier, Max Steinberg, was killed, and 30,000 people showed up for his funeral as well. And the tunnels of love continue to expand and extend. At the shiva, 300 people, almost all of them complete strangers, showed up to comfort the parents of these brave young men. Strangers on the streets show an incredible amount of care and concern for one another, even during these most stressful times. A stranger uses his body to shield a father and son from a rocket attack. Breslever chassidim dance with soldiers on the front lines. Chabad brings care packages. People from all walks of life, from all over the world, are connecting through tunnels of love and compassion to provide the IDF soldiers with whatever they need.

Hamas may have built tunnels of terror, but we are building and maintaining tunnels of love. We may be different on the outside - one seems to be chareidi, another secular; one is a likudnik, the other is Chassidic - but when it really matters, we know how to ignore the external differences and dig deep, focusing on our commonalities: we are one nation, with one heart and one soul.

We are currently in the annual three week period of mourning for the destruction of the Holy Temple. The Temple was destroyed because of acts of wanton hatred, and it will be rebuilt through acts of love and kindness.

So, nu, G-d, what are you waiting for?!

My thanks to Rabbi Mendel Prus & Yaara Bank-Plotkin for the inspiration of this article.

In my weekly blog I usually try to connect current events with the weekly parshah, but this week I struggled. So much has already been written about the war in Israel. The differences between Hamas and the IDF have been explored at length. Hamas puts children directly in harm's way, while Israel goes to incredible lengths to protect civilians. What more could I add?

So I texted  my friend, Fred, "Got any ideas for my blog this week?"

He shot back, "I love your blog! Reading them is the highlight of my week! But the last few weeks you've been too militant."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Every week lately you've been writing about Hamas! First Hamas kidnapped the teens, then you wrote about the UN, and then the need for Israel to use more force. I love your blogs that are personal and relatable, but I find the war blogs irrelevant to my life."

In this week's Torah portion the tribes of Reuven and Gad ask Moses to grant them land outside of Israel where they will have plenty of pasture for their flocks. Moses reacts strongly and angrily. "Will your brothers go to war and conquer Israel while you remain here peacefully?" So the tribes promised to leave their families and join the war, which they did years later when Joshua conquered the land. They left everything behind to help their brothers and sisters.

Our nation is at war. I spoke to my sister-in-law today. She wishes her children could start sleeping properly at night without being woken by sirens with less than a minute to get to a bomb shelter. My cousins in Israel are all traumatized, as are their children. It is only because of the incredible miracles we are seeing that we haven't had thousands of casualties.

There's no doubt about it, Israel is under attack. Hamas hates every Jew in the world, make no mistake about it. If they could, they would happily send rockets flying at us as well. This war is not just Israel's war. It is our war.

Moses resounding cry should reverberate in our ears. "Shall your brethren go to war while you stay here?!" Should our brothers and sisters in Israel face this war alone while we sit here comfortably in our penthouses?

In fact, this week I logged onto our Belev Echad Facebook page, which we only started a few months ago and haven't marketed yet. I noticed that Hamas supporters had attacked many posts with virulent anti-Semitism and despicable words. So yes, the war is personal.

If we can't fight physically, we can fight spiritually. The very minimum we can do is some extra mitzvot for our soldiers. Put on tefillin for Israel. Put up a mezuzah. Eat a kosher meal. Give extra charity. In fact, we've set up a website where you can donate to send care packages to IDF soldiers in Gaza to help lift their spirits. Do a mitzvah for Israel right now!

World Cup fever has overtaken the world. When I ask congregants to help make a minyan, they tell me, "Rabbi, Italy's playing, I can't come!" And then when I ask them to join a Torah class it's "France is playing..." Fortunately, the final is right around the corner and then we'll have our congregants back.

I belong to a South African Whatsapp group which is normally pretty quiet. Over the last few weeks, however, it has been buzzing virtually non-stop as people comment on every aspect of every game. I was forced to mute the group because after every game I had hundreds of messages! Now, maybe if Zimbabwe's team had made it to the World Cup I'd be more interested... 

The World Cup is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, but as the chosen nation we are currently playing a very different and much more dangerous "game." Israel vs. Hamas. And we are not spectators. We are active participants!

Hamas has fired more than 365 rockets into Israel over the last 72 hours. Because of Israel's amazing "goalie" - the Iron Dome - most of those have been intercepted. Miraculously, when a rocket scored a direct hit on a home in Southern Israel, the family was away in Eilat and nobody was killed.

Unlike the World Cup which began in 1930, Israel has been playing its soccer game for over 4,000 years. And there have been many captains over the years - Moses, David, Joshua, Gidon, etc.

If there's one thing we can learn from soccer it's this:

To win, you cannot play defense.

Israel has played defense for far too long. The country is currently in crisis, being barraged by Hamas rockets at all times of day and night. Most of the country is being forced to run to bomb shelters multiple times a day - at work, at camp, at home, in the middle of weddings, bar mitzvahs and brit milahs - and they have only 15 seconds to reach shelter. This cannot continue!

We need to end this situation, and in order to win you cannot play defense.

In this week's Torah portion, the Jewish people were involved in another "World Cup." This time it wasn't Hamas, it was their Midianites enemies, and G-d instructed, "You shall smite them." And they did. They went all out and destroyed the evil Midianites. When facing enemy attack, the only way to win is to play offense and make sure they will never dare attack again.

Since its inception in 1987, Hamas has launched terror attacks against Israel, and Israel has never played offense. We have defended ourselves and destroyed a few targets. But in order to finally win the "game" we have to give them such a powerful blow they will never attack us again. That is what Moses, Joshua, Gidon, David and all the other captains did when they played against our enemies - the Emorites, Egyptians, Ammonites, etc.

In this week's Torah portion Pinchas kills two perpetrators, and G-d says, "I hereby give him My covenant of peace." The only way to true peace is to obliterate the enemy.

The same holds true of our spiritual lives. We can help Israel by playing spiritual offense. Come to shul this Shabbat, put on tefillin today, light Shabbat candles, go to a Torah class. All these acts will help us win the war.

Let's hope and pray that the current government in Israel will do the right thing, will do what is necessary to once and for all win the game against Hamas! Ultimately we know that we have the best goalie in the world. It is not the Iron Dome, certainly not the USA, but the almighty G-d. The G-d of our forefathers has saved us and protected us for the last 5000 years, and we know that he is protecting us right now!

"Hinei lo yanum velo yishan shomer yisrael!"- The guardian of Israel neither sleeps nor slumbers.

*Thank you to the South African Whatsapp group for some of the ideas in this article!