From:    heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com
To:      "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
Date:    Thu, 4 Dec 1997 00:05:44 +0000
Subject: Story: Our Support is God

From:          Bill Zack
To:            heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject:       God's Role in Preserving Jewish Continuity

Thought this was a pretty good story.  Isn't just like all of us to
learn things the hard way?

Shalom

Bill Zack

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> 
>  Wednesday Evening
> 
>  Dear Class,
>
>         In response to questions concerning G-d's role in guaranteeing
>  Jewish continuity (Topic #2), I would like to relate to you the
>  following story. This story is told by one of the Rabbis in our
>  institution (Rabbi Asher Wade) as an example of G-d's continued
>  involvement in our long history.
>
>         The story begins on an army base in Berlin, in
>  the year 1974. Rabbi Wade, then a chaplain, befriended a Jewish
>  American officer by the name Stuart. Stuart did not strike him as
>  being a religious man and so Rabbi Wade was surprised one day to see
>  Stuart wearing a Yarmulka (skullcap). Upon questioning Stuart's
>  reasons for donning this unconventional attire, Stuart told Rabbi
>  Wade the fascinating story behind it.
>
>         Stuart grew up in America in an religiously uninspiring Jewish home.
>  He vividly remembered his distaste for Sunday School, but had been
>  willing to go along with the Bar Mitzvah classes as a necessary
>  "payment" for the big Bar Mitzvah bash. At his Bar Mitzvah, Stuart
>  had said to himself that if this was Judaism, he would not come into
>  a Temple again.
>
>         And so, after the "Bar", Stuart conveniently put his youthful
>  energies in other pursuits. He was an Honor Role student. In his
>  senior year, he was overcome with a feeling of wanting to serve his
>  country. An appointment from his state Senator brought him to the
>  prestigious West Point Military Academy.
>
>         As part of their first year studies, cadets were enrolled in a
>  course called, "History of Military Tactics & Field Strategies",
>  taught by a 3-star lieutenant general with a Phd. in Military
>  Strategy. The course surveyed the major battles in history, including
>  those of the Ptolemies, the Romans, the Middle Ages, and down to the
>  latest battles of our modern era.
>
>         During the final two weeks of the course, which were devoted to
>  reviewing the material, Cadet Stuart raised his hand with a question.
>
>         "Why," asked Stuart, "did we not survey any of the battles fought by
>  the Jews, either of ancient times (i.e. Roman-Jewish Wars) or of
>  modern times (i.e. Arab-Israeli Wars)?"
>
>         "The normally friendly general snapped back with an order for
>  me to see him in his office after class," remembered Stuart. Upon
>  entering the general's office, Stuart was ordered to close and lock
>  the door. By the time he turned around from locking the door, the
>  general was already rapidly moving toward him. "Screaming at me in a
>  whisper," recalled Stuart, the general told me never to embarrass him
>  again in class. Upon asking the general for an explanation, the
>  general responded that he was aware of Stuart's Jewish identity and
>  was therefore convinced that Stuart's question was intended to
>  ridicule him.
>
>         "The general then told me that he would only answer my question in
>  the privacy of his office," said Stuart.
>
>         "Do not think that the staff here at West Point has left the
>  Jewish wars unnoticed," began the general. "We have examined and
>  analyzed them and we do not teach them at West Point," he continued.
>
>         "According to military strategy and  and textbook tactics, the Jews
>  should have lost them. You should have been swept into the dustbin of
>  history long ago. But you were not. You won those wars against all
>  odds and against all military strategies and logic."
>
>         "This past year, we hired a new junior instructor. During a private
>  staff meeting and discussion, the Arab-Israeli wars came under
>  discussion. We puzzled at how you won those wars. Suddenly, this
>  junior instructor chirped up and jokingly said, 'Honorable gentlemen,
>  it seems to be quite obvious how they are winning their wars: G-d is
>  winning their wars!'. Nobody laughed. The reason is, soldier, that it
>  seems to be an unwritten rule around here at West Point that G-d is
>  winning your wars, but G-d does not fit into military textbooks!
>  You are dismissed," concluded the general.
>
>         "I left the general's office," continued Stuart. I had never been so
>  humiliated in my life. I felt about 2 inches tall. "Wouldn't you know
>  it," I said to myself,  "that I would have to come to West Point and
>  find out how great my G-d is from a nonpracticing Presbyterian 3-star
>  general."
>
>         "I went back to my dorm room," continued Stuart and rooted down
>  between my socks that were kept in my drawer to find that 'flap of
>  cloth' that I threw on my head once a year. I said to myself: This
>  thing is going on my head, because I found out, in essence, who I was
>  and where I came from."
> 
>         My dear students, if the "Top Brass" at West Point knows our secret,
>  should not we know it too?
> 
>         "We could hardly find another expression like, 'You have suspended
>  me from above,' which so accurately describes the uniqueness of the
>  position of anyone who relies completely upon Divine guidance and
>  direction. All the others lean on some natural support on earth, but
>  we seek our support only from above, from G-d alone. There is nothing
>  on earth that upholds us. If we were left to ourselves, without G-d's
>  assistance, we would have sunken into the depths of history long ago.
>  This has been demonstrated in all the experiences that David has
>  amassed during his long lifetime."
>

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