The Spirit of Caleb: Why Israelis Abroad are Racing Home to War

El Al’s website couldn’t handle the flood. Within two hours of opening online registration for flights back to Israel, over 60,000 Israelis stranded abroad signed up. And that was just the beginning. Despite open pleas from Israel’s Transportation Minister for citizens to remain where they are, and despite the real threat of Iranian missiles targeting landing strips, more than 100,000 Israelis are doing everything in their power to return to a nation at war. Flights are being organized from Athens, Rome, Larnaca, and New York. Ships are sailing from Cyprus. Israelis are not fleeing danger. They are racing toward it.

Why? Why would families in Paris, students in New York, and tourists on Greek beaches all insist on returning to a place of rockets and air-raid sirens? Why are tens of thousands applying pressure to the government and crashing airline websites, all to board what are being called “rescue flights” — except that these rescue flights are going in the wrong direction? In what world do people flee the safety of Europe and America to return to a war zone?

To understand what is happening right now, we need to revisit the sin that kept Israel in the desert for 40 years.

In the Book of Numbers, the Israelites stand on the edge of the Land of Israel, and twelve spies are sent to scout it. Ten return with fear in their eyes.

The Sages explain that their sin was not simply cowardice. They slandered the Land itself, exaggerating dangers and demoralizing the nation.

The cities are fortified. The giants are too tall. The task is impossible. The result? The people cry out in despair and beg to return to Egypt. God decrees that this generation will die in the wilderness. Only Joshua and Caleb, the two dissenting spies, will merit entry into the Land.

But the Sages teach that the story does not end there. The children of the faithless generation would not simply enter the Land — they would rectify the sin. In Hebrew, tikun, rectification, does not mean apology. It means action. A correction. A transformation of failure into strength. And the Sages explain a powerful rule of tikun: the repair must mirror the failure — and then go beyond it. True rectification must reflect the nature of the original sin — and surpass it.

Rabbi Eyal Vered points to what we are witnessing today as that final rectification. The spies said we were too weak, but today’s Israelis cry out, like Caleb did: “The land is very, very good… Do not fear them!” (Numbers 14:7–9). The spies trembled in the face of danger. Today, 100,000 Israelis fight to return to it. The spies spread demoralization. Today, an entire nation is standing strong with faith and resolve. The spies wanted to stay in the desert. Israelis abroad are trying to come home — even if that home is under fire.

This is no small feat. The spies claimed that the cities were fortified, that the dangers were too great. Today, the dangers are real. Iranian missiles have already hit Israeli cities, including Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva and apartment buildings across the nation. Civilians have been killed. Israel’s enemies are openly declaring their goal to destroy her. And still, El Al is overwhelmed with demand. Despite it all, Israelis are desperate to come home.

The Bible describes Caleb as possessing a ruach acheret — a “different spirit” (Numbers 14:24). That phrase captures exactly what we are seeing now. There is something deeply rooted in the Jewish soul — a fierce sense of connection to the Land of Israel that defies logic or calculation. It’s not about comfort or convenience. It’s not even about safety. It’s about belonging.

The Sages teach that the Land of Israel is acquired through suffering — and also through love. Ahavat haaretz, love for the Land, is not a slogan. It’s a lived commitment. It’s what brings Israelis to build homes on hilltops with no running water. It’s what brings young couples to raise children in communities targeted by rockets. And it’s what draws Jews from every corner of the world to come home — even when that home is under threat.

To outside observers, it looks backwards. Rescue ships sailing toward war? Planes filled with passengers landing in a country under fire? But this isn’t confusion. It’s clarity. It’s a nation that knows who it is and where it’s meant to be.

Today, Caleb is no longer alone. The words he spoke — “Do not fear them… the Lord is with us” — are no longer a lonely protest. They are the voice of a generation. A people with a different spirit. A people answering the sin of the spies not with arguments, but with plane tickets and passports in hand.

It is easy to speak of God’s greatness, and He is great. We are seeing His miracles every day. But let us also speak of the greatness of His people. We are witnessing an extraordinary nation choose courage over fear and brotherhood over comfort. A nation like this — a nation that rushes not away from the fight but toward its mission — will not lose.

God is leading us. But it is the people of Israel who are showing the world how to follow.