PIKESVILLE, Maryland — How could the Bible describe God saying in Genesis 1:31 that “all He did was very good” when we see that people are frequently hurt? The Laws of Nature that God created do much good. A strong wind, even a violent one, cleans the air, but it often hurts and even kills some people. No law benefits most of a nation or world that does not harm some people. I do not know why God created this situation. But I do know that good can be achieved even in tragedies. Difficulties in life can prompt people to improve. As the saying goes, even storm clouds have silver linings. Dov Lipman’s book provides examples.
Rabbi Dov Lipman’s 2024 191-page book The Magic in the Tragic, Inspirational Stories from the Hamas War against Israel, published by Gefen Publishing House, is a surprising, emotional, and moving volume. The president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, praised it, and his two-page compliment introduces the book.
The volume contains seven parts, with 97 emotional heroic stories. Each is usually told on a single page, followed by a colorful portrait of the person involved. Each Israeli mentioned is named, except for some who helped fellow citizens but wanted no praise.
Each tale dramatizes Israelis’ positive reactions to one of the darkest days in Jewish history, the savage attack upon their land and people on October 7, 2023, and the rape and murder of many people.
The author, Dov Lipman, is a former member of Israel’s Knesset, its parliament, who received rabbinic ordination from Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, Maryland.
The book’s Foreword is written by Iris Haim, mother of Yotam, a Hamas hostage for sixty-five days, who Israel’s soldiers tragically killed as he was escaping captivity in Gaza. Like other mothers who tell their tales, she accepted the tragedy positively. “I have chosen to act for the good of the Nation of Israel in Yotam’s name. I have chosen to unify our fractured parts and to raise awareness that we all have the same gene. We all have the same goal.”
The book is filled with many positive, heroic sentiments. Its cover shows a son lighting a Hanukkah menorah. His parents were murdered on October 7 by Hamas savages. Their family home was looted and set on fire. The only item salvaged from the rubble was the menorah. He returned to his demolished home and lit the menorah where his mom and dad were murdered, setting an example of light shining in the darkness.
An ultra-Orthodox man was driving to Jerusalem and saw a husband and wife stranded by their car, which ran out of gas. He pulled over and said he would drive to town and bring back gas. When he returned, the stranded man tried to pay his ultra-Orthodox helper, but the helper replied, “No charge. This is a mitzvah, and I am not willing to sell my mitzvah.” The man was surprised. He said, “Come here. I have to show you something.” He showed him his car bumper sticker that read, “Run over all ultra-Orthodox people.” He ripped off his sticker and became a defender of ultra-Orthodox Jews. This is not the story’s end. While most tales are on a single page, this one is told in four.
Several tales of Israelis paying for food purchased by soldiers are included.
One picture shows an unidentifiable woman who saw a group of soldiers eating in a restaurant, who, unknown to the soldiers, went to the counter and paid for all their meals.
An IDF paratrooper was critically wounded while fighting Hamas in Gaza. His family fulfilled his wishes and gave six of his organs to six people. The accompanying picture is of his mother, a Black Jew, listening to her son’s heart beating in a white man’s body.
Some men and women were not required to go to war, such as the retired sixty-four-year-old who had served as a government minister. He put on his former uniform and rescued injured soldiers under fire.
There was a non-Jewish Israeli in the process of converting who begged the rabbinate to expedite his conversion, “So that if I am killed, I can die as a Jew.”
There are many other tales, such as a Muslim Israeli who went to war for Israel, how injured soldiers who were amputees handled their post-battle lives positively, and how so many Israelis supported the soldiers who sacrificed their lives so that Israel would be secure.
Dov Lipman tells us that these stories are just the tip of the iceberg, and he verified that each is true. They give us a glimpse of the special nature of the Israeli army soldiers and the country’s heroic, positive-thinking non-soldiers.
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Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin is a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps and the author of more than 50 books.
PIKESVILLE, Maryland — How could the Bible describe God saying in Genesis 1:31 that “all He did was very good” when we see that people are frequently hurt? The Laws of Nature that God created do much good. A strong wind, even a violent one, cleans the air, but it often hurts and even kills some people. No law benefits most of a nation or world that does not harm some people. I do not know why God created this situation. But I do know that good can be achieved even in tragedies. Difficulties in life can prompt people to improve. As the saying goes, even storm clouds have silver linings. Dov Lipman’s book provides examples.