When the Torah relates that Moshe counted the Jewish people, the verse specifies “like Hashem commanded him” (1:19). Rav Moshe Feinstein asks, why is this phrase necessary? Just a few verses earlier, we are informed that Hashem commanded Moshe to count the Jews? He answers that the Torah is teaching us a very important message. It is very important for a general to know how many soldiers are in his army, in order to plan their battle strategy in the most optimum way. However, by Klal Yisrael, success doesn’t come from numbers but from Hashem. If Hashem wants us to be successful, we will, irrespective of any statistics. This phrase reiterates this point (Drash Moshe p.108). One case where we saw this was by the Chanukah story. We were seriously outnumbered by the mighty Greek army, yet miraculously emerged victorious.
We observe this also in recent times. In Iyar, 1967, Eretz Yisrael was surrounded by mighty armies on all sides. Four powerful countries, Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Jordan, were determined to wipe our small country off the map, causing tremendous terror. The figures were really outstanding. Our enemy’s armies were close to double, and they had much more sophisticated weapons and aircraft. Military strategists predicted a tremendous defeat and great casualties. However, Hashem showed us that statistics make no difference; after miracle upon miracle, we were victorious and not only were the casualties significantly less than predicted, much new territory was conquered. This included holy sites such as the Kosel and Kever Rachel. There are hundreds of stories of the many miracles which occurred. One was that the entire Egyptian air force was wiped out before they even left the ground; another was that a bomb hit the Mir Yeshiva with many people inside yet didn’t explode! Rav Chaim Shmulevits, the Mashgiach, was full of tremendous gratitude to Hashem, and thanked Hashem each year on the 28th Iyar for this miracle.
We have also experienced this other times in recent history. For example, in the Gulf war in the 1990’s we were under a serious threat from Iraq and through an outstanding series of miracles we were saved. Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach stated that one could compile an entire Megillah with the miracles that occurred during this war. We even experienced this in the last few weeks! Iran, who possess powerful and sophisticated weapons fired three hundred missiles at Eretz Yisrael. These were state of the art rockets that costed millions and it was a serious threat. Many ambulances were prepared and it could have been a great tragedy. Yet through a serious of miraculous miracles Hashem saved us from our enemy’s evil plan.
