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The 4 Pilots That Saved The Land of Israel

In the Pesach 5779 edition of Zman, the Hebrew magazine had a long article on the rise of Israel’s air force that on the natural level changed a defeat in the War for Independence into victory.
The airplanes at first were junk airplanes made from leftover material from World War II that had to be smuggled into Israel in the face of a USA embargo on life saving weapons and a Pro-Arab British mandate that provided military assistance to the enemy.
One of the head pilots, named Lou Lenart reported that at the start of the war:

At 5:00 in the afternoon, Shimon Avidan arrived from the mountains with his jeep. He says, “listen, six miles from where we are currently at the air base, the entire Egyptian army, with about 10,000 men, is located, and we have nothing to stop them. If you do not leave now, tomorrow morning they are in Tel Aviv, and there is no State of Israel.”

Four pilots were selected to fly the four planes: {Note: Smuggled into Israel in defiance of the American arms embargo} Ezer Weizman and Modi Alon from the land of Israel, Eddie Cohen from South Africa, and Lou Lenart (a Jewish Zionist) from the U.S.A. Lenart led the air squad.

“Four people and four junk airplanes,” Lenart said. “It was the Israeli Air Force.”

At 8 o’clock in the evening they took off and headed south. At one point, Lenart lost direction. They didn’t have any communication equipment, but he saw Weizman signal with his hand to go straight. A moment later, Lenart noticed a column of Egyptian vehicles and soldiers stretching along the road, with its edge not visible.

“Tanks, trucks, artillery, everything. I looked and saw the enemy coming to destroy us. I looked back and saw the people of Israel standing behind me. Even though I am not religious, I said the Sh’ma prayer (Deuteronomy 6:4) and turned the plane on its back, because to make the bomb dive more effective, the sharper the descent, The more accurate the ability to inflict damage. ”

Lenart released the bomb. His whole body vibrated from the blast waves of the blast beneath him as he continued to fly at low altitude and spray the Egyptian infantry with mortars, dodging the heavy anti-aircraft fire using a flight tactic called “Clover Leaf.” The mortars barrels were stuck almost immediately, and Lenart had to operate the machine guns, which were less effective, against the enormous Egyptian army.

Two of the four Israeli aircraft were eventually destroyed due to the poor quality of the airplanes.

Nevertheless, the attack halted the advance of the Egyptian army because the commanders were afraid that a far greater air force was on its way.

“The Egyptians did not get closer to Tel Aviv. It can almost certainly be said that in one air strike of four dilapidated aircraft, the Air Force changed the course of the war.

According to the messianic calculations of the Vilna Gaon , the rise of the State of Israel is part of the beginning of the redemption, as explained in my article The Creation of Adam from Dust and the Theory of Evolution and alluded to by the events of the day that Adam was created in the book of Genesis (Breishit).

Do Non-Religious Jews Get Credit For Building The Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael) ?

The Talmud as translated by https://www.sefaria.org.il/Sanhedrin.102b.8?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en
explains what spiritual merit did Omri have that made this non-religious Israelite the king of Israel.
Rabbi Yoḥanan says: For what virtue was Omri, king of Israel, who was Ahab’s father, privileged to ascend to the monarchy? It is due to the fact that he added one city in Eretz Yisrael, as it is stated: “And he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver, and built on the hill, and called the name of the city that he built after Shemer, the owner of the hill, Samaria” (I Kings 16:24).

Perhaps Those 4 Pilots Are An Omen For The Future Four That Will Save the Land of Israel

A disciple of the Vilna Gaon explained in Kol Hator chapter 1 that the following is a great rule. Whatever will come in the full redemption begins bit by bit also in the beginning of the redemption.

This post was written by Shlomo Moshe Scheinman

New Addition

The Vilna Gaon also understood that the physical liberation of the Jews would precede the spiritual redemption.
So what I stated above in no way contradicts another post on this site which explains the scenario of The Messiah Coming In a Generation That is Completely Liable [For Extinction] – The Vilna Gaon Explains on What Point Are They Liable
Elsewhere in his commentaries to mystical writings the Vilna Gaon predicts the leaders and judges of the Jewish people before the spiritual redemption would be robbers and bribe takers and would try to take actions to drive a wedge between the Jewish people and Hashem.
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