One of the things that we thank Hashem for on Chanukah is saving us from the Greeks. As we mention in Al Hanisim we thank Hashem for delivering the many into the hands of the few, the strong into the hands of the weak, etc. The victory in that battle was a true open miracle displaying that it is Hashem who fights our battles.
We find another time in the Torah where Bnei Yisrael recognized an open miracle and sang shira to Hashem as well.
In Parshas Chukas the Torah recounts the different travels and trials and tribulations that Bnei Yisrael encountered in the desert. Then the Torah tells us (based on Rashi, Bamidbar 21:14-19) that in the sefer of the Wars of Hashem, when they will relate the miracles that happened to our forefathers, just as we recount the miracles of the Red Sea, so should we recount the miracles that happened at the Streams of Arnon. For here too, many great miracles were performed.
What were those miracles? Rashi citing the Midrash Tanchuma and Midrash Rabba explains that the mountains were high, and the valleys were deep and narrow, and the mountains were so close to each other that a man standing on the mountain on one side could speak to his fellow standing on the mountain on the other side. A road passed along the valley.
The Emorim said, “When Bnei Yisrael enter the land by passing through the valley, we will come out of the caves in the mountains above them and kill them with arrows and stones.” There were clefts in the rock on the Moabite side [of the canyon], and directly opposite those clefts, on the mountain on the Amorite side, there were protrusions, appearing like horns. When the Israelites prepared to pass through, the mountain of the Land of Israel trembled, like a maidservant going out to greet her master, and moved toward the mountain of Moab. Then those protrusions entered the clefts, killing the Emorim.
The following pasuk says: From there the flow [of blood] came to the well. Rashi explains that Hashem said, “Who will inform My children of these miracles?” As the proverb goes, “If you give a child bread, you should inform his mother” (Gemara Shabbos 10b). So, after Bnei Yisrael passed through, the mountains returned to their places, and the well descended into the stream, and brought up the blood of the slain, their arms, and their limbs, and carried them around the camp. Bnei Yisrael saw them and sang a song. Az yashir Bnei Yisrael.
On Chanukah this year, for the second time, Hashem has exposed terror tunnels built to stage horrific terrorist attacks. In 2014 it was from Gaza, and now on Chanukah 5779 Hashem has exposed tunnels from the north. By exposing these tunnels before an attack was carried out, rachmana litzlan, Hashem has once again saved us without a single shot being fired.
This year, in addition to thanking Hashem for saving us from the Greeks, we should also include praise and gratitude to Hashem for saving us from the terror tunnels on the northern border.
