My family and I are scheduled to travel to Israel this month, but the other day my six-year-old son turned to me and said “I don’t want to go to Israel.” When I pressed him for a reason, he said, “Because there is a war going on there.”
I was so surprised. How does he know?!
For the last 10 days, every morning we wake up to the headlines:
“American intelligence indicates there will be an imminent attack from Iran and its proxies.”
“US intelligence estimates that Iran has shelved its attack.”
“Mossad says the attack is back on.”
“Attack coming, but limited.”
“Iran will attack through Hezbollah.”
“Attack on hold for hostage negotiations, US says.”
It’s nerve-wracking for us, how much more so for Israelis who are truly living on the edge! The constant back and forth, will there be an attack or no attack? When? What can we do? We can’t keep living like this! It’s exhausting.
A Major in the IDF once told me that only a fool will tell you “War is not imminent,” and only a fool will tell you “War is about to break out.”
Absolutely nobody knows what will happen—not the chief of staff, not the defense minister, and not the prime minister. Not even the Iranians or the ayatollahs! The Middle East is such a volatile place; things change so rapidly that we simply know nothing. Any tiny episode can ignite the region in flames in seconds.
So, how do we continue living in such anxiety-ridden times? As it is, we Jews are anxious people!
Although it may seem counterintuitive, it is precisely at times like these that we give ourselves over to the Almighty G-d and tell Him, “We don’t have the answers, we don’t know what will be, but You do and we place our trust and our lives in Your hands!”
The only One who knows precisely what will happen, when, and how, is G-d. The world runs according to his schedule precisely!
Facing such tremendous uncertainty, we turn to the only thing that is true and solid in this world: Torah and mitzvot. By studying Torah and committing to the mitzvot, we fortify ourselves the best way we know how.
So while we may not know whether there will be another war in Israel now, we do know—without a shadow of doubt—that G-d will protect us as He has done for so many years!
And so I responded to my six-year-old son: “Of course we are going to Israel. Israel is the safest place on planet Earth—G-d keeps His eyes on the Land year-round. Unless, of course, the airline cancels, in which case we won’t be able to fly.