Q&A: Providence and the Plane Crash
Providence and the Plane Crash
Question
With God’s help,
how does the Rabbi explain the plane crash yesterday? Is that also just chance?
How does the Rabbi explain the colossal failure of the Iranian attack on Israel, through the interception of the missiles at percentages far higher than expected? (True, I’m not a missile expert, but that’s what was said that night in the TV studios by one of the former officials from Rafael or the Directorate of Defense Research & Development, or one of the similar security bodies. I don’t remember the name right now.)
Does the establishment of the State of Israel, and its continued existence and flourishing in the face of the enemies around it and despite the murder of millions in the Holocaust—and especially the military achievements (the Six-Day War, the Sinai Campaign, and also Yom Kippur…)—not point to special providence over the Jewish people? (I’m not getting here into the issue of individual providence over each person, but only providence and the wondrous existence of the Jewish people throughout history.)
Isn’t the phenomenon of antisemitism too unusual and “strange” (sorry for the crude expression) to fit within the bounds of the ordinary psychology of nations and cultures?
After all, how does the Rabbi explain all these things? Are they all just chance? Why, in light of all this, does the Rabbi insist on claiming that God has abandoned the land?
Thank you
Answer
I am not insisting on claiming anything. I have answered this many times, and I have no interest in getting into the subject. Believe whatever you want.
Discussion on Answer
How many crashes involving heads of state have happened in the past? Cases that had nothing at all to do with Israel. And how many cases were there in which terror attacks did succeed (just 7 months ago there was such an attack).
Taking one case and attaching it to another case that supports your argument while ignoring everything else is not serious.
I checked, and if the Israeli Mossad “handled” the helicopter, then it’s only natural that what they wanted would happen to it, and it’s even possible to decide at which minute of the flight it would happen.
That too is completely natural and not miraculous at all.
Even if his enemies in Tehran did it, it should work like clockwork unless we’re dealing with schlemiels.
Even if agents of Ukraine or his other enemies—and they are many and varied—did the job, it’s completely natural and not a miracle.
Theoretically it’s also possible that there was a miracle there…
But the burden of proof is on the claimant.
The interceptions of drones and missiles too, with a developed command-and-control system that has had the best minds invested in it over many years, plus cooperation from Britain, the U.S., Jordan, Germany, and apparently also Saudi Arabia and Israel (according to what was published; I don’t know beyond that), and when they knew in advance—it’s supposed to work like clockwork at the level that it did.
And again, theoretically it’s also possible that there was a miracle there?
Maybe.
But the burden of proof is on the claimant.
If it had been swallowed up in the sky or all turned back on them, that would be a miracle on the scale of the splitting of the Red Sea and the like—so that would be a miracle.
But when things work the way they are supposed to work,
how are you claiming a “miracle”?
A few years ago I planted a lemon tree in my garden, and indeed, thank God, there is a lemon crop. That’s nature, not a miracle. If it grew money—and a lot of it—that definitely would be a miracle.
I’m looking for people that has been happening to in recent years…