Unable to distance himself from the grenade, which was about to cause his certain death, Tomer suddenly remembered Dovid’s words and cried out with all his heart the Shema Yisrael that he had been practicing ever since his encounter with Dovid.
At that moment, said Tomer, an absolute, undeniable miracle occurred and the grenade stopped just at the tip of Tomer’s weapon, which was lying on the ground beside him. Tomer was somehow able to fling the grenade back to where it came from and, against all logical possibilities, his life was spared. He called Dovid to his bedside to thank him and to tell him that now he knows that there is a G-d.
The following story, reported by Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi, appeared in the August 3 edition of Israel Today.
A non-religious soldier was one of a group operating the Iron Dome in the Tel Aviv area. They spotted an incoming Hamas missile and it was clear that it was meant to hit the Azrieli Towers, a major Tel Aviv commercial center, the Kirya (comparable to the Pentagon) or the central Tel Aviv railway station. In any case, hundreds of lives were endangered.
They immediately fired an Iron Dome missile to intercept the incoming rocket but it missed. They fired a second time and that, too, missed. This is extraordinarily rare, said the soldier. With only seconds left before the oncoming rocket would reach its destination, they fired another Iron Dome missile and this, too, missed. With only seconds left before the missile would reach its target and cause a terrible disaster, suddenly, said the soldier, a huge eastern wind appeared from nowhere and pushed the incoming missile out to sea where it fell into the water, harming no one. “We were all shocked,” said the soldier.
He explained that the equipment they have is incredibly exact which makes missing a target almost impossible. Plus, they are aware of all meteorological factors and there was no wind at all before the one that came and prevented a great tragedy, and there was also no wind afterwards, either. It came from nowhere, he said, redirected the missile, and disappeared.
As soon as he could leave his post, the soldier looked for someone who had tefillin and asked him to put them on him, and help him with the blessings. And he took upon himself to keep Shabbos, something he had never done.
Shortly after that, he called a rabbi he once knew and asked where there was a yeshiva in his city. “I’m going to be released in a couple of months, and I want to learn in a yeshiva.” The miracle was that obvious.
A mother of a chabdnik who brought packages of food and nosh from the home front to the soldiers said that her son told her the following true story. Some soldiers who had a short respite from the front lines were taking cover in a small house. They had been given food packages that had been sent to them from civilians who they didn’t know but who were concerned for their welfare and wanted to express their gratitude for their mesirus nefesh for Am Yisrael. One of the soldiers took out something to eat and saw a note attached to it that said: “I know that you are protecting me and this is a small way to show my appreciation. I just have one request – that you make a blessing before you eat what I sent you.”
The soldier wasn’t religious and didn’t know how to make a blessing. He looked around and saw a religious soldier sitting in another corner of the room. The first soldier crawled over to him for help with making the blessing. As he finished reciting the blessing, a tremendous explosion shook the room. An RPG rocket had fallen exactly where the soldier had been sitting just seconds ago. The soldier burst into tears, knowing that his life had been saved by a miracle.