By the Grace of G‑d
16 Cheshvan, 5734 [November 11, 1973]
Brooklyn, N.Y.

Mr. Benzion Rader
Ilford, Essex
England

Greeting and blessing:

I trust that my previous correspondence to you and Mrs. Rader has been duly received, as well as the telephone message in connection with the Neshei Convention.

Here I wish to refer to one point in your latest letter, where you wrote about the difference between the Six Day War and the so-called Yom Kippur War, in that G‑d’s miracles were more obvious in the Six Day War, etc.

As a matter of fact, there were ample miracles, and quite obvious ones, in the last war. The overall miracle, which has now been revealed, although not overly publicized, is the survival after the first few days of the war, when even Washington was seriously concerned whether the Israeli army could halt the tremendous onslaught of the first attack. Slowly and gradually some details are now being revealed also in the Israeli press as to how serious was the danger in those early days of the war.

The greatest miracle was that the Egyptians stopped their invasion for no good reason only a few miles east of the Canal! The obvious*1 military strategy would have been to encircle a few fortified positions in the rear, and with the huge army of 100,000 men armed to the teeth, to march forward in Sinai, where at that point in time there was no organized defense of any military consequence. This is something that cannot be explained in the natural order of things, except as it is written, “The dread of the Jews fell upon them,” in the face of their intelligence reports about the complete unpreparedness of the Jews in Eretz Yisroel at that time.

There are also scores of reported miracles in various sectors of both fronts, which need not be recounted here.

The essential point of this whole tragic war is that it could have been prevented, and, as in the case of medicine, prevention is more desirable than cure. For, at first glance, the accomplishments of the physician in curing the sick seem more impressive by the dramatic results than preventive medicine where there could be some delusion that sickness would somehow be avoided, but in truth it is much better, of course, to be spared the pain and anxiety of sickness altogether, by immunization. The latter is the way of G‑d, as it is written, "All the sickness...I will not afflict upon thee, for I, G‑d, am thy physician" (Ex. 15:26).

Now it is quite evident how important and urgent has been the appeal made last summer centered on the verse, “Out of the mouth of babes and infants you have ordained strength (oz)..to still the enemy and avenger.”2 All the more so since in the present situation the "enemy and avenger" has made no secret of his intentions.

If recent events will have taught everyone the basic lesson that Jews have no one to rely upon except G‑d himself, and that the real strength of our people lies in the Torah and Mitzvoth, called oz, as it is written, “HaShem oz l’amo vitein”3 - then the sacrifices will not have been in vain. Certainly every one of us must redouble our efforts to bring this realization closer to all our fellow Jews everywhere.

With blessing,

M. Schneerson