Bibi Netanyahu has been unambiguous: the purpose of Israel’s daring and unbelievably successful strike on Iran was to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring a nuclear bomb and from massing conventional ballistic missiles capable of striking Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The goal could not be simpler, or more righteous: survival. Self-defense. Stopping the modern-day Amalek before it completes its genocidal mission.
But is that really the only purpose of Operation Rising Lion?
Every year on Passover, Jews around the world gather to retell the story of the Exodus, reliving the journey from slavery to freedom. One of the highlights of the Seder, the special Passover meal, is a song called Dayenu — “It would have been enough.” With a cheerful melody and a repetitive chorus, the song marches through a series of hypothetical scenarios, each punctuated by the phrase dayenu: “If He had brought us before Mount Sinai and not given us the Torah — dayenu. If He had given us the Torah and not brought us into the Land of Israel — dayenu. If He had brought us into the Land of Israel and not built us the chosen House — dayenu.”
At first glance, this song seems not only strange but entirely incorrect. Would it really have been enough to stand at Mount Sinai and never receive the Torah? Would it really have been enough to enter the Land of Israel and never build the Temple in Jerusalem? The answer, obviously, is no.
To make sense of this paradox, the Sages teach that the song must be understood as a retrospective affirmation. Each step in the divine process has value on its own. But none of them — not the Exodus, not the splitting of the sea, not Sinai — were the end goal. Each step pointed toward a greater destination: the building of the Beit HaMikdash, the Temple in Jerusalem, and the ultimate revelation of God to all of humanity.
Only once that destination is reached can we look back and show our appreciation for each step of the journey and say: “It would have been enough.” But while we are on the journey, we are not permitted to stop. As the verse teaches: “They shall go from strength to strength, every one of them appears before God in Zion” (Psalms 84:8).
The danger of forgetting the final goal is not hypothetical. The Bible warns us again and again of this spiritual amnesia. The Book of Numbers — which in Hebrew is called Bamidbar, “In the Wilderness” — is filled with tragic examples of a people who lose sight of their mission. Chief among these is the sin of the spies. When the ten spies returned from their mission and discouraged the people from entering the land, they were not simply being cowardly. They claimed that what they were already experiencing in the wilderness — the daily miracles, the clouds of glory, the closeness to God — was itself the final destination.
This was their sin: they lost sight of the end goal. They confused the path with the destination. They believed that life in the desert — in God’s presence, but without the land, without the building of the Temple — was good enough.
It was a false holiness. It was an abandonment of the mission. And it provoked God’s wrath more than any other sin in the wilderness.
Rabbi Yehuda Leon Ashkenazi once illustrated this danger with a parable: A man sets off on a journey to Jerusalem. On the way, his car breaks down. He pulls over, fixes the wheel, and gets back in. But by the time he finished the repair, he had forgotten where he was going. He drives aimlessly, thinking the fix itself was the purpose. This is the danger of exile: that the people of Israel might forget that exile is temporary. That they might forget that the destination is Jerusalem.
One who believes he has already arrived has fallen into a trap. He is not “going from strength to strength” — he is standing still. And a stationary faith is a dying faith. As the Talmud says: “Torah scholars have no rest, neither in this world nor in the World to Come, as it is said: ‘They shall go from strength to strength, every one of them appears before God in Zion.'”
The process is not the point. The journey is not the goal. The journey exists to bring us to a destination. That destination is the building of God’s house in Jerusalem, and the global recognition of His sovereignty.
Which brings us back to Operation Rising Lion. The immediate purpose of Israel’s strike is obvious and urgent. But to believe that defense is the end goal is to fall into the same spiritual trap as the man fixing his wheel on the side of the road. We do not exist to defend ourselves. We defend ourselves so that we can build.
Israel’s war against Iran is about more than survival—it’s about destiny, about clearing the path so the world can finally see what we’ve always known: there is a God in Zion. Iran’s destruction isn’t the final victory but a necessary prelude, the collapse of a satanic regime that has threatened God’s people too long, and the beginning of something larger than military strategy—the final revelation itself:
This is a critical part of our mission as Bible believers and servants of God. We must be the “eyes of the congregation” (Numbers 15:24). We must see what others do not: that the destruction of the Iranian regime – the judgment and destruction of Gog of Magog, the enemies of Israel and of God – is a necessary step to the revelation of God Himself in the eyes of the nations of the world. When the nations of the world see the destruction of those who dare to stand against God and Israel, “they will know that I am the Lord.” And once the nations know God, they will “go up to the Lord’s mount, to the house of the God of Jacob” in Jerusalem.
This is why we fight. This is why we cannot stop. Because only when the nations see the judgment of evil will they “know that I am the Lord.” That is the goal. That is the destination. This is the true purpose of our miraculous devastation of the Iranian regime. And we must not stop until we get there!
As Operation Rising Lion continues and Israel faces ongoing attacks from Iran, Israeli civilians are enduring daily missile strikes and constant security threats. Families throughout the country have been forced into bomb shelters, displaced from their homes, and are struggling with damaged infrastructure and disrupted lives. During this critical time, Israel365 is working around the clock to provide emergency aid and vital support to those most affected by this crisis. Your contribution can provide immediate relief to families in need. Please support Israel365’s emergency relief campaign and stand with the Israeli people as they navigate this difficult period. Your generosity can bring hope and tangible help to those who need it most.
