Shabbat in a Bunker

When the Sabbath begins with sirens, you know history is happening. Admittedly, every Israeli Sabbath begins with a low siren – these were much, much louder. And this Sabbath began at 6 p.m. Friday – while the loud, persistent, you-cannot-miss warning sirens announced America’s and Israel’s justified attack against Iran at 8:13 Saturday morning, Feb. 28.

Every Sabbath morning at 9 a.m., I pray in a “minyan” – an informal garden prayer group we started during another historic moment – COVID. It turned our Jerusalem neighborhood into an extended family. When the sirens warbled, I scrambled outside our house, placing sandbags by the window of our safest basement room.

Many of us have improvised safe rooms. Iran’s missiles pose three threats. First, shock waves. Being in a basement offers excellent protection – you’re below ground. Second, shrapnel. There, our family is split. Following Oct. 7, 2023, my wife and I used the basement hallway, by the stairwell, which faces four doors to different rooms, with no windows. But on Feb. 28, we had a full house with kids, in-laws, and our first grandkid. Our basement guest room is more comfortable than a cramped stairwell – which is why I blocked the one small window with “sandbags” – OK, two bags of woodchips I found and three huge logs from a recently-cut-down tree.

The third threat is a direct hit – then, you’re simply in God’s hands.

It turned out that this first round of sirens was a wake-up call, a warning that Israel and America were attacking – so we could expect a different day of rest than all of us had planned.

I got dressed, and left for the local “minyan,” as usual.

We don’t use phones on Shabbat – except for emergencies – so I wondered if anybody would show up. At 8:58, when I exited my house, I saw Gidon, my 83-year-old neighbor, walking down the street. When I caught up to him, I said, “Seeing you filled me with joy.” He responded, in classic matter-of-fact Israeli style, “They won’t stop us – they’ll never stop us.”

This morning many more people than usual showed up right on time, casually, and, yes, defiantly. We’re not crazy. We prayed quickly. But this was a significant Sabbath – “Shabbat Zachor,” the Sabbath of memory. Every year, we read an additional Torah reading just before Purim – the holiday celebrating the Jewish people’s defying the odds and turning the tables on Haman, in Persia, present-day Iran.

Growing up, in a conservative synagogue, I vaguely remember the rabbi’s warning to pay attention as we heard Deuteronomy 25:17-19, which begins with that defining Jewish idea “Zachor” – Remember! It’s a direct command: “Remember what the tribe of Amalek did to you.” But even that first word, “Remember” is the key to so many dimensions of Jewish – and Zionist – identity.

In my Jerusalem neighborhood today, many Religious Zionists take the obligation to hear those three verses extremely seriously. Women who may normally not attend synagogue because they’re taking care of the children, scurry to fulfill this commandment. We read the verses from an additional scroll – using a variety of “tropes,” liturgical notes – as we finish the Torah reading. Then, in case anyone missed it, we read those three verses again after the service.

This Shabbat, resisting the tension to finish, as the buzz of warplanes added an unexpectedly dramatic touch, three readers read the same passage – in Yemenite, Ashkenazic, and Sephardic styles. Their different yet overlapping melodies animating the same words, affirm the Jewish people’s unity without total uniformity, over thousands of years, in dozens of countries. By this time, nearly 100 people had crowded into the garden. People who usually don’t pray with us – whose synagogues had closed after the 8:13 warning – joined, anxious for this historic, and theological, reassurance. Just as we finished the second reading, the air-raid sirens blared and we scattered.

The passage emphasizes the evils of that dastardly enemy Amalek – and its successors– who pick on the weakest, the innocents – as Palestinian terrorists have done for decades, as Hamas did on Oct. 7, as Iran has done in targeting Israelis and Americans from afar – and slaughtering tens of thousands of its own citizens up close. The passage finishes by emphasizing the Promised Land’s power, that when “your Eternal God saves you from your surrounding enemies, in the land your Eternal God grants you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out Amalek’s memory from under heaven.”

Admittedly, this passage is not politically correct. Jews have offered many interpretations over the centuries. In directing us all to remember and act, the verse emphasizes collective responsiblity – solidarity! And it challenges us to remember who our friends are, while having the moral grounding to recognize our enemies too.  Life is not a Berkeley seminar.  What serious army ever goes to war against wicked adversaries, not pursuing total victory, just seeking a draw? Too many Ameicans – and American Jews – forget today that justified wars against evil regimes are existential – and necessarily brutal.

Not surprisingly, the first U.S.-Israeli strike was devastating – again illustrating how closely the two allies work together as well as Israel’s invaluable role as America’s ROI and DIY ally. Israel offers untold Returns On America’s Investment – and it’s not just a Do-It-Yourself ally, it defends itself, America, and the West.

Surprisingly, the Iranians seemed surprised – because the week had been spent focusing on negotiations. Israel eliminated 40 regime leaders in the war’s first seconds and killed Iran’s “Supreme Leader” and chief world disrupter, Ayatollah Khameini.

Iran quickly made the stakes clear for Americans. If the regime wasn’t just lashing out blindly, it would have only retaliated against Israel, trying to make the war look like America bailing out the Jewish State.  But give the surviving Mullahs and Revolutionary Guards points for honesty. Iran targeted U.S. bases in Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq, attacking more Arab countries in one day than Israel has in 77 years. Those actions prove that this regime poses a lethal threat to its Arab neighbors, the West, and America – Big Satan – along with Little Satan – Israel.

We need our American Jewish brothers and sisters to suspend whatever concerns they may have about Donald Trump. Focus on this extraordinary opportunity to free the oppressed people of Iran – and protect the world from this cancer.

Meanwhile, we in Jerusalem passed the Sabbath in peace. At one point, 12 of us crowded into our small 8 x 10 basement shelter. What do you serve for an Iranian missile attack? We offered a cheese and nut platter, fresh fruit and our favorite Israeli whisky, Yerushalmi Mount Moriah.

Of course, we take this seriously. My kids have served over 1,000 days combined, buried dozens of friends, seen the horrors of war up close. But Israel’s Happy Warriors know that happiness is about purpose not giddiness. When you have moral clarity, enriching traditions, an enveloping community and a patriotism transcending passing political headaches, you know two things. You undertand that patriots love their country because of its politics sometimes, but despite its politics always. And you realize that you must know what you’re willing to die for – so you know what you want to live for.

And that’s why Israel – and America – will win.

Gil Troy is an American presidential historian and Zionist activist born in Queens, living in Jerusalem. Last year he published, “To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream” and  “The Essential Guide to October 7th and its Aftermath.” His latest E-book, “The Essential Guide to Zionism, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism and Jew-hatred,” was just published and can be downloaded on the website of JPPI  – the Jewish People Policy Institute.