So, how are you celebrating the 14th of Elul on Sunday, Sept. 7? How have you planned to mark the day? With psalms of thanksgiving? With a festive meal?
Why celebrate the 14th of Elul, you ask? Well, I understand you. This festive date in Jewish history is new. It hasn’t yet “caught on.” But precisely for that reason, it’s important to mark it on the calendar. Because on the 14th of Elul, one year ago, the “beeper operation” happened in Lebanon.
Yes, it’s already been a year since that unforgettable day, when thousands of Hezbollah operatives’ beepers (pagers) in Lebanon and Syria exploded simultaneously in an amazing Mossad operation. Fifty-nine people were killed and 4,500 wounded, hundreds critically. According to Reuters, around 1,500 Hezbollah terrorists were permanently disabled after losing their sight or suffering major head and limb injuries.
But these numbers are nothing compared to the massive blow to the morale of tens of thousands of fighters. Many simply fled the battlefield. The “beeper operation” dealt Hezbollah a devastating strike, and together with the military operations that followed, set off a chain of miraculous events in the Middle East, culminating, as we know, in the attack in Iran.
And it all began on the 14th of Elul. No doubt that date entered history. The question is whether it will enter our yearly cycle of commemoration. That depends on us and our awareness of gratitude. And how much we owe thanks!
It was literally by a hair’s breadth—between massive success and total failure if the enemy had discovered the plot. And the fact that despite a reckless leak in the media 15 hours before the operation, where senior IDF officials were quoted as warning against “rash steps that could drag us into a much worse problem in the North.”
Even though Yediot Ahronot and Ynet published this, Hezbollah didn’t discover the threat and the spectacular operation succeeded. That’s a miracle within a miracle.
Let me continue with a few more dates. With all the noisy media campaigns that deny these miraculous events, blur them, confuse us and make us focus only on the hardships, we must pause and remember. To zoom out, with a bird’s-eye view, on the historic period we’re living in and the great events taking place.
Amidst all the panic and poison, the noise and distractions—right before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year—let’s do this properly and list all the thanksgiving days the Jewish people are destined to mark. Cut this out and save it.
We started with the 14th of Elul. Now jump forward and mark Wednesday, the 24th of Elul. That too deserves thanksgiving. It’s the yahrzeit of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah; may his evil memory be cursed. Remember him?
A leader who shaped our lives for about 30 years, who fired missiles at us, who threatened us with arrogant speeches, who said we would collapse like cobwebs, who was the axis of all our enemies, who seemed like he’d be here forever? Well, not anymore.
On Friday, 24th of Elul, 5784, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the United Nations. The media in Israel criticized him for traveling to the U.S. But at the very same moment, while he was being interviewed after his U.N. speech, Israeli Air Force pilots dropped 83 one-ton bombs, including bunker-busters, on Hezbollah headquarters where Nasrallah sat watching Netanyahu’s speech. He was killed on the spot. End of broadcast.
Remember the joy we felt the next night at the first Selichot (for Ashkenazim), on the last Saturday night of the year, when the assassination was officially confirmed?
How much divine assistance was there: in the intelligence on his location; in the fact he didn’t move at the last moment; in the precision strike, and especially in the success of the subsequent campaign. Compare that with the terrifying, unforgettable headline that warned of 15,000 dead in Israel in the event of a strike on Lebanon.
And one more thing I recalled this past week: the Hebrew words Netanyahu chose to close that same U.N. speech, knowing that at that very moment our pilots were en route to Beirut’s Dahiya district.
“To the people of Israel and the soldiers of Israel I say: Be strong and courageous,” he said, ending with verses from the Torah portion that Jews would read the next day—when Nasrallah would no longer be alive: “Be strong and resolute, do not fear and do not dread them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will not let go of you and will not abandon you.”
After the two Elul holidays comes the next date: the 14th of Tishrei. What do we celebrate that day? First of all, Sukkot—“so that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in sukkot.” And also, so that your generations may know that on the eve of Sukkot, Yahya Sinwar was eliminated.
At 3 p.m., Battalion 450 of the Bislamach Brigade spotted suspicious figures moving among buildings in the Tel al-Sultan camp in Rafah. They opened fire, the cell split, soldiers killed two terrorists, and the third fled into a building. IDF forces didn’t know the identities of the terrorists, nor did they expect Sinwar to be in the area. A tank fired several shells, then a drone was sent to scan, spotting a wounded masked man on a sofa who threw a stick at the drone.
After disengagement, the tank fired again, infantry launched a Matador rocket, and the building partially collapsed. Troops then combed the ruins and identified one of the bodies as Sinwar. His body was transferred to Israel, examined at the forensic institute, and after the first day of Sukkot, Israel learned its bitter enemy was gone.
Sometimes, after brilliant IDF operations, we risk falling into the “my strength and the might of my elite units” trap. But here it was easy to look upward—because after endless intelligence efforts to find the man who masterminded Oct. 7, 2023,, responsible for 1,163 deaths on that day alone, in the end he was killed with no advance intel, by young sergeants, not by pilots, not by special forces. Why need special forces? Nobody even knew it was Sinwar. It happened completely by chance. So thank the One who runs the world’s “coincidences.”
And now we come to one of the most exciting milestones of the year, right after Sukkot: the 4th of Marcheshvan—the day the Jewish people will commemorate Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States. Amazing that he has been in office for less than a year. Amazing how many good things began on that day. Amazing how many bad things ended on that day.
Actually, if we celebrate Trump’s election with Hallel and thanksgiving, we should also mention the 7th of Tammuz. That was the day Trump’s life, and the lives of so many Jews, were saved miraculously when an assassin missed his head by millimeters and only grazed his ear.
Oh, and on that very date—the 7th of Tammuz—we should also thank God for another successful assassination. On that day, Israel finally eliminated Hamas’s top operative, or rather its lowest thug, Mohammed Deif. The man who planned the Oct. 7 massacre. Thank You, God of assassinations, that it didn’t go the other way—with Deif grazed in the ear and Trump killed.
What a year we’ve had. The next date is the 7th of Kislev, the day when the verse was fulfilled: “The Lord will fight for you, and you will sing all the more.” Following the collapse of the Assad regime and the rebels’ takeover of Syria, Israel took over the abandoned Syrian army positions on Mount Hermon.
I’ll never forget that day: I lay down for a nap, and when I woke up and checked the news, my wife said to me, “The Syrian Hermon is ours.” As they say, it happened while you were sleeping.
Well, after five good days in a row filling the start of the calendar, comes a long winter stretch. But then arrives the 17th of Sivan — when we’ll mark perhaps the greatest miracle of rescue. It began with Netanyahu’s surprise visit to the Kotel, his prayer, his tallit, and the note he placed with the words “Like a lion shall he rise"—and the rest is history.
Massive successes in Iran: against all forecasts, every plane returned safely. The massive missile counterattack caused damage but relatively few casualties. Each life lost is a world entire, the pain immense, but compared to the expected toll, we must see the overflowing full cup.
And if we mark the Iranian deliverance, we should also recall the 5th of Nisan. Remember Erev Pesach a year and a half ago? That Saturday night when reports came of a huge Iranian missile strike? I’m talking about the first Iranian attack. Remember the fear? The spike in Google searches for “Tehillim”? And then the miracles—more than 300 missiles intercepted, with not a single casualty.
And finally: after all the thanks for the revealed miracles (not to mention countless hidden ones we’ll never know about), we mustn’t and can’t forget the terrible tragedy. Soon comes Shemini Atzeret, the day when it all began, and with it the memorials for all the holy soldiers who fell in the ongoing campaign, and to continue to pray for the release of the hostages and for the end of Hamas in Gaza.
Until then, may we find strength and comfort in Isaiah’s prophecies — written thousands of years ago, foretelling it all: both the brief, small moment of divine concealment, and the great kindness that has begun and will only grow:
“For a brief moment, I forsook you, but with great compassion, I will gather you. With a flood of anger, I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness, I will have mercy on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer.”
There’s no doubt this date entered history. The question is whether it will enter the yearly cycle. Operation Beepers—this week, one year ago.
