The world witnessed something extraordinary yesterday. In the late-night hours of June 21st, American B-2 stealth bombers dropped “bunker buster” ordnance on Iran’s most fortified underground nuclear facility at Fordow, while naval submarines launched Tomahawk cruise missiles from 400 miles away at the Natanz and Isfahan enrichment sites. The nuclear facilities that had haunted Israeli nightmares for decades were, in President Trump’s words, “completely and totally obliterated.”
The war is not over. Even as their nuclear sites burned, Iran launched retaliatory missile barrages that wounded 86 Israelis this morning. But when dramatic events unfold on the world stage—when nations clash and nuclear threats dissolve—what does Scripture demand of those who serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?
The Sages teach us something startling about human nature: “A wicked person in his lifetime is considered as dead, because he sees the sun rising and does not bless ‘Creator of Light,’ sees it setting and does not bless ‘Who brings on the evening twilight,’ eats and drinks and does not bless over them. But the righteous bless over each and every thing they eat and drink, that they see and that they hear.”
This teaching reveals the spiritual chasm between two types of people. The wicked person lives in a world where coincidences happen, where natural forces operate independently, where human agents act according to their own will and nothing more. Such a person can witness the most extraordinary events and see only politics, only military might and only human calculation. The righteous person lives in an entirely different universe. Every sunrise carries divine intention. Every sunset reflects celestial design. Every morsel of food connects the eater to the Creator’s ongoing providence.
If the Sages obligate us to bless God for the ordinary sunrise and our daily bread, how much more so must we give thanks when existential nuclear threats are struck and the security of the Jewish people is strengthened?
This principle of the Sages reflects a biblical truth that appears throughout Scripture. The Hebrew Bible demands we see beyond the surface of events. When King David declared:
he was establishing the proper response to divine intervention. David did not write, “I will analyze the political factors that led to my victory” or “I will credit my military advisors for their strategic wisdom.” He wrote Odcha—”I will give thanks to You”—with the emphasis on divine agency, not human calculation.
David understood what another psalm expresses even more dramatically:
The imagery is precise—Israel as a bird that has escaped the hunter’s trap, not through its own cleverness, but because the trap itself was broken by divine intervention. Iran’s nuclear facilities were the snare, designed to threaten Israel’s very existence. The snare was shattered, breaking the trap that had menaced the Jewish state for decades.
Rabbi Koby Gigi captured this distinction perfectly in his response to last night’s strikes: “We awakened to a wonderful sunrise this morning, at least like in the days of Mordechai and Esther. They wrote letters against us and even carried out part of their plan, and today we can say clearly: ‘But it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them.’ (Esther 9:1)” His reference to the Book of Esther is precise—just as Haman’s genocidal plot was reversed through what appeared to be political maneuvering but was actually divine orchestration, so too yesterday’s strikes represent more than American foreign policy or Israeli lobbying.
The nuclear facilities that could have produced weapons capable of eliminating have been significantly damaged, if not obliterated. This transcends political preference or military analysis. Such divine intervention creates a religious obligation of gratitude.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson understood this principle when he declared after the Gulf War, “If we had given thanks with full recognition, the Final Redemption might already have come.” This statement reflects the belief that proper gratitude for divine intervention could hasten the arrival of the Messianic era. Recognition of God’s hand in history is not merely a pious exercise—it is a catalyst for continued divine action.
The biblical worldview recognizes no purely secular events. When American submarines launched thirty Tomahawk missiles from 400 miles away resulting in direct hits at Natanz and Isfahan, when B-2 bombers dropped precision “bunker buster” ordnance on the mountain fortress of Fordow, when intelligence networks coordinated flawlessly across time zones and continents—the person of faith sees the hand of Providence working through human agents.
This does not diminish human responsibility or ignore political realities. It simply places them within the proper framework. President Trump made the decision. American military personnel executed the mission. Israeli intelligence provided crucial targeting data. But the God of Israel orchestrated the convergence of circumstances that made such action both necessary and successful.
The miracles continue daily. When a missile strikes a hospital but the patients were evacuated just hours earlier. When nuclear facilities are destroyed with surgical precision while minimizing casualties. When defensive systems intercept projectiles that would have killed thousands. These are not coincidences—they are divine interventions requiring biblical responses.
Scripture demands that we respond to such moments with more than political commentary or strategic analysis. The proper response is the response of King David, of Mordechai and Esther, of every generation that has witnessed the impossible become inevitable when divine justice breaks forth in history.
Yesterday, a major blow was struck against the nuclear sword that threatened Israel. The war continues, but the existential threat has been broken like the “fowler’s trap.” Today, those who fear God must do what Scripture commands: give thanks, sing praise, and recognize that we live in a world where the hand of Providence is guiding history toward redemption and the ultimate triumph of righteousness.
