Ein Od Milvado (part 1)

By Rav David Lhungdim

The phrase "there is none like him" refers to our creator. The thirteen principles of faith stated by Rambam include the belief that the Creator—blessed be His name—is the Creator and the One who guides all created beings. All that has been made, is being made and will be made by him alone.

The fundamentals of the Jewish religion mandate that all that happens in the cosmos is guided by G-d's loving and compassionate hand; nothing happens without G-d's providence.

The Ramchal wrote in his famous book Mesillat Yesharim (Path of the Just Ch one) that the foundation of saintliness and the root of perfection in the service of G-d lies in a man's coming to see clearly and to recognize as a truth the nature of his duty in the world and the end towards which he should direct his vision and his aspiration in all of his labors all the days of his life

Our Sages of blessed memory have taught us that man was created for the sole purpose of rejoicing in G-d and deriving pleasure from the splendor of His Presence; for this is true joy and the greatest pleasure that can be found.

The place where this joy may truly be derived is theWorld to Come, which was expressly created to provide for it; but the path to the object of our desires is this world, as our Sages of blessed memory have said (Avorh 4:21), "This world is like a corridor to the World to Come."

The means which leads a man to this goal are the mitzvoth, in relation to which the Lord commanded us, may His Name be blessed. The place of the performance of the mitzvoth is this world alone.

I discussed in the last article the heinous occurrence that occurred on October 7th. Today I'd want to expound on how the providence hand of G-d may be seen in daily actions of man's life, whether in his speech, job, or elsewhere, and mankind is only a puppet.

A week prior to Yom Kippur, we were granted a new location for the synagogue, which served as a kindergarten until a new structure could be constructed. the mayor of Sderot Alon Davidi, and his assistant Edward informed us that we would begin Yom Kippur prayers in our new synagogue at Brith Arim 17, and they assured us that we could use the kindergarten as a club for kids and young adults once a synagogue was constructed.

left to right Mayor of Sderoth Alon Davidi and his assistance Edward

The majority of the community elders were surprised because the new site kindergarten needed to be renovated, but the Mayor said it wouldn't take long, so the place was renovated within three days as he said, and on Wednesday the Kindhearted Mayor sent us a truck to carry our community belongings, we cleaned the place until 24:00 midnight, which we continued until Thursday, and indeed Yom Kippur service took place in the new site.

It should be emphasized that our Synagogue "Alfei Menashe," which was previously located in Natan Elbaz 23, was the first Bnei Menashe synagogue in Israel, having been founded on Rosh Chodesh Adar 2014.

I was therefore startled to learn that the first synagogue for Bnei Menashe was erected in Nof Ha Galil in 2022 under Mayor Ronan Plot, as reported in the media and verified by certain organizations.

To our dismay, this misleading item has already been posted on Google. It has to be removed since it might teach the younger generation something that is entirely untrue. The media must be objective and do an investigation in order to expose the truth.

I was perplexed as to why the Mayor was so keen to relocate us to the new location; some of the community elders believed it would be more convenient to relocate after Simchat Torah.

The day we entered the new site was a joyous occasion for our community, and I was still wondering why not after Simchat Torah, everything became evident all of a sudden on Simchat Torah when terrorists stormed Sderot and massacred a large number of citizens on the roadway.

The road which Khamas terrorist roam is mark red and the police station, palmach street, Rambam street, the new synagogue site and the old synagogue site can be seen in the map.

Most of our community members would have been murdered by Hamas terrorists if we had continued to pray at the old site in Natan Elbaz 23, because some of our community members who live in Rambam Street and Ha Palmach neighbors must walk at least 25 minutes along the roadside until they reach Natan Elbaz 23.

Those who reside in Neoth Eskol, Ben Yehuda, and Yaara Street must walk at least 5-10 minutes to cross the major road, which was the same route along which Hamas terrorists were rushing and killing their victims.

Since we entered our new synagogue at Brith Arim 17, the majority of the community does not need to walk the main road because the synagogue was situated in the middle of Neoth Eskol's neighborhood. The only people who must cross the main road to get to our new location are those who reside in Rambam Street, Palmach Street, and Havered.

Nevertheless, they were safe because, when Hamas terrorists broke into the police station early in the morning and started attacking it, twenty police officers lost their lives. Because these three neighbors lived close to the police station, they were aware that, when the police retaliated against Hamas, the terrorists had already infiltrated, and none of them left their homes.

Our sincere prayer for the Mayor, May God grant him a long and prosperous life, goes hand in hand with the Providence hand of God guiding his people, which is precisely why G-d put in his heart to offer us the new site before the start of the Yom Kippur holidays. Through his benevolent kind-heartedness, Mayor Alon Davidi saved a great deal of innocent blood.