To The Editor:
The article on the Chavlei Moshiach (29 Adar) reminded
one of the tens of thousands of atomic weapons around the
world, ranging in size from the 1 kiloton (equivalent
destructive power of TNT) suitcase bomb that could destroy a
city block, to the 100 megaton Russian "Tsar Bomba" that can
destroy an entire country. Just one of the 600 foot long
Leviathan-like U.S. Trident or Russian Typhoon class
submarines is capable of destroying 50 cities in less than
one hour.
HaRav Boruch Horovitz once said that a special brochoh
should be instituted for the fact that there hasn't been
a nuclear war!
During the Yom Kippur War, On October 23 1973, the USA
declared a DEFCON 3 world-wide nuclear alert, even as 100,000
Soviet paratroops prepared to intervene to rescue the
Egyptian armies. A bolt of fear was felt by many men that
day: "The day will come that will burn like an oven!"
(Malachi 3). "Damascus will cease being a city: it
will be a heap of ruins" (Yeshaya 19). Shir
Hashirim Rabboh 2 speaks of the Moshiach coming in a
generation deserving of destruction, indeed that will be
capable of destroying itself.
". . . and this will be the punishment . . . their flesh
shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and
their eyes shall consume away in their sockets, and their
tongue shall consume away in their mouth" (Zecharya 13 & 14).
With the power of the Atom bomb a person can be standing,
and then in the next second before he hits the ground be
completely consumed. Before the Atom bomb, no weapon had the
capability of such destruction.
At the time when warships will come to attack "Ashur" and
"Ever" (Iraq and Iran?), Bilom in his last prophecy
(Bamidbar 24) wailed, "Oy mi yichye misumo E-l -
- "Woe! who will survive when G-d does this?" which the Zohar
interpolates as, "Mi yichyeh miYishmoel? The World
Trade Center attack gave frightening import to the Zohar's
warning.
We pray soon for a complete and total geulah sheleimoh
wherein will be fulfilled Hashem's promise: "Behold I
will create a new heaven and a new earth; and the former one
will not be remembered nor even come to mind!" (Yeshaya
65)
Yours Truly,
Amnon Goldberg
Tsfas
