This was told by Rabbi Benjamin Blech, of Aish HaTorah in Yerushalaim. One of Rabbi Blech’s friends is a Rabbi named Asher Wade. Quite a fascinating fellow, he is extremely bright and well-educated. This Asher Wade was born as a non-Jew; he was ordained as a minister and was a pastor of a church for many years. When studying for one of his doctorates he was in Germany and happened to be there for the anniversary of Kristalnacht. He read about the treatment of the Jews and this started him on the long road to converting to Judaism. He learned at Ohr Same’ach in Yerushalaim for many years and after his Giyyur and his ordination, Rabbi Wade was very much into “Kiruv,” (“outreach”) trying to bring back to the fold those Jews who had wandered far away from the Jewish People and from Torah and Mitzvos. He served as a US Army chaplain and for a time he was the Rabbi of a Shule in the Mid-West United States.
One of the families in his congregation was of the “three times a year” Shule-goers (two days Rosh HaShonnoh plus Yom Kippur) who felt that if they ate a bagel now and then they were Jewish enough. They had a son (who was even less interested in Yiddishkeit than his parents were) who was accepted to West Point Military Academy, which made his parents very proud.
The son goes off to West Point — and comes home after his first year wearing a Kappel and Tsitsis. He’d become religious! Rabbi Wade called him over and asked him, “What happened?” After all, West Point Military Academy is not exactly the place one would expect a straying Jew to find his roots!
In reply, the young cadet related the following:
He had taken a required Military Strategies course, covering the history of military tactics and field strategies in which they studied almost every war that was ever fought and scrutinized them all and learned all about them and considered carefully why the winners won and the losers lost. The main teacher was a three-star lieutenant general, a well-experienced veteran with a degree in military strategy and the course consisted of surveying the major battles in history, ranging from those of ancient times, the Ptolemies, the Romans, the Middle Ages, right down to the most recent battles of modern times.
One day during the final two weeks of the course, devoted to reviewing all the course material, the young soldier raised his hand and asked a question. He said that he had noticed that although they studied and analyzed a wide range of conflicts and battles, in none of the lectures was there ever even a mention of Israel. “Why is it,” the cadet asked, “that the wars that were fought in Israel have never been mentioned, neither those of ancient times, like the Jewish Wars against the Romans, right through to modern times, like the Arab-Israeli wars? After all, they were some of the most astounding victories, especially in 1967.” The usually affable lieutenant general didn’t answer the question. Instead, he rather abruptly ordered the cadet to see him in his office after class.
When the cadet reported to the lieutenant general’s office, he asked the young fellow to repeat his question. “How come that we never seem to study the battles fought by Israel? Surely there must be important lessons and strategies that we can learn from these battles?”
The general answered: “Young man! Don’t think that the staff here at West Point don’t know about the Jewish wars. We do. We have examined them and discussed them in great detail. But the greatest military strategists in the world have examined, dissected and analyzed the wars that Israel has fought and won and no matter how you look at it, according to military strategy and textbook tactics, the Jews should have lost every single time. They should have been swept into the dustbin of history long ago. But in fact they did win those wars, against all odds and against all military strategies and logic. It is perfectly clear that it was not their weapons or their strength or the strategies that they used that gave victory to Israel. The only reason that can honestly explain Israel's victories is that G-d fights for them. Their victories are miracles — and at West Point Military Academy we do not teach miracles.”
The young soldier was astounded that a battle-hardened veteran army man would admit such a thing. He realized that if high-ranking military men can recognize the Hand of G-d in the affairs of the Jewish People, then he wanted to be a part of this People. He started to enquire about what it means to be a real Jew. He began learning about Judaism and he became an observant Jew — and he remains so today.
Suggested by Mr David Witt of Johannesburg, South Africa, to whom many thanks.
