Prayer from the Depths
by Eliyahu Misgav
The
following happened during the Lebanon War to a platoon of soldiers from a Hesder yeshiva, in the "Alon" battalion. At a very tense and
difficult moment in the fighting, one of the officers sent an unusual request to
the
deputy commander of the battalion. He said that
his gunner, Moshe
Zelikowitz, had asked for permission to read a prayer over the radio.
The "radio" was a battalion-wide signal
link, so that all the tanks for
many km around would hear. But there was a short lull in the fighting,
with
a very unusual period of
quiet all across the battlefield, including
the
radio. And so Zelikowitz turned to the platoon commander with his
request.
According to the platoon commander, "It was a bit strange, because the
rule
in the network is to be very brief,
using a bare minimum of words.
Prayer
on the radio? It sounded mad. I felt that I did not have authority to
approve the request, so I
asked the deputy commander." The deputy,
Kravitz,
later explained: "I needed the radio for important communications. It
was
not
easy to free it for other purposes. I considered answering that
every
tank should pray on its own. But then I understood how this prayer
might
help my friends, my soldiers. I began to feel what it might mean to
them.
Since if necessary I could stop it at any time, I
gave my approval."
And Kravitz finally said, "Just get it over with fast!"
For what seemed like a very long time, the army
signal network was
filled
with the ancient prayer of the priest who accompanied soldiers into
war,
recited throughout history to
thousands of warriors before they left
for
battle. In the background, the soldiers could hear echoes of nearby
artillery, and in the
tanks the men stretched their muscles in reaction
to
their tension and excitement. And on the radio they heard: "Listen
Yisrael,
today you are approaching a war with your enemies, do not have faint
hearts. Do not be afraid, do not be faint, and do not
panic before
them,
for G-d accompanies you to fight your enemies, and to protect you...
G-d,
be with the soldiers of the IDF,
messengers of your nation, who are
about
to wage war on their enemies. Make us strong and give us courage, fight
our
battle, help
us in our war... Please, G-d, help us; Please, G-d, save
us;
Give us help from our oppression." And he went on and
on...
Kravitz, the deputy commander, was completely overcome. His eyes
clouded up
with tears. "I felt as if a tremendous wave
of water had washed over
me,
from head to foot. There I was, the deputy commander, standing in the
command post, stunned, and I could
not move . Our signalman, Moshik,
did
not remove his hand from the receive button, out of excitement. The
prayer
had finished,
but the communication line remained open. And then Moshik
yelled out, 'Well, say amen!' and he released the button. So I said,
'This
is the commander: Amen!' And the other tanks followed, one by one:
'Number
1: Amen! Number 2: Amen!' This continued
until they had all responded,
just
as if we had been waiting for the acknowledgement of an order."
(Source: Yisrael Wallman,
"Alon in Storm")
