0742 - Recognizing Hashem ans his Miracles Part 3 - Hostages in Washington DC

00:01 Not long after the story of Entebbe, there was something similar. It happened in the United States. Certain Arabs took hostages in Washington, D.C., and they kept them for a long time. Long time means for over a day, et cetera, twenty-- more than twenty-four hours. And they, they had crazy demands, and they said they would kill them all if they wouldn't give in to their demands. And they had negotiations with them, and they talked to them, et cetera. And the end was that after they told them that it's the wrong thing to do, anyway, they let them go. And the Rebbe spoke about it. It was a big miracle also. And he said the Baal Shem Tov said that anything that happens in the world is a lesson in Avodat Hashem. So this also is a lesson in our Avodat Hashem. So first of all, you gotta look at them as nissim. So you see the Aibishter does nissim. And the way the Rebbe put it, it showed the Hashgochah Protis, that the Aibishter took care of anything. And the Rebbe said he's going to mention a few of the lessons that we're able to take from that story. So he says-- the Rebbe says like this: First of all, after the thing of En-Entebbe, there were some people that said, "Why do we have to get involved in what happened in Entebbe? This happened in an uncivilized country. This, these-- This has nothing to do with us." So the Rebbe said, here we see that

01:27 the same thing could happen in a civilized country, in a superpower, in the Ir HaBirah, the Rebbe said, in the capital of the superpower in the United States of Washington, D.C. And what happened in a way-- It happened in a way that nobody assumed they'd all get out of it. Nobody assumed that they're going to be able to convince them to let them go. So when you see what happened, that they did let them go at the end, shows first of all, yesh balabay zibira zu, that there's the Aibishter who takes care of everything. So... And it's not because you have money. There were people here that had money and then poor people, all kinds of people, and nevertheless, it doesn't matter. They were all the same, and there was no way that the klipah and derech hateva that they were able to get them-- rid of them. And nevertheless, the Aibishter made that it should, it should happen. Now, another lesson the Rebbe said here, that we see that this happened to all people equally. Tzaar, the problem happened to all Yidden equal-- all people equally, and amongst them were Yidden. Whether you're rich or whether you're poor, whether you're smart or not smart, it happened to all equally. And the hatsalah happened to all them equal. The, the, the salvation happened to all equally. And the Rebbe said this happened between Purim and Pesach. So it's connected Tzaar to Purim, Tzaar to Pesach. By Purim, the gezairah v'ram was on all people equal,

02:50 betah v'anashim. Anashim, anashim, betah, men, women, and children. And by Pesach also, we have the arba bonim, which means that all equal. So we learn from here that b'dibat Aibishter, the-- everyone is the same, and the Aibishter could help and take care of everybody equally. And another lesson the Rebbe said, there was no way you could-- they thought that they could convince them to let go. And what they did say to convince them, and I don't know exactly the details the way the newspaper said it then, I don't remember, but it was they were ma'avir et haemunah. These were Arabs, and they, um, ma'avir, they awakened within the emunah that the Aibishter doesn't want this to happen. You have to think about the Aibishter, and the Aibishter didn't want it to happen. And the Rebbe said that this was ma'avir that they gave in. They gave in on their own to give up these people and give up their demands. And this is even though it's emunah of another n- another religion. So first of all, even by the-- the Rebbe said even by the Christians, Baal Shem Tov said that it's better a goy who's avodah avodah zarah than an apikores. So a Nazi is avodah zarah, but it's better than apikorses, and we believe in the Aibishter. Certainly by the Arabs, by them it's Is- Mus- the Muslims, their Islam, that's not even avodah zarah. So they were ma'avir in them, these people, the emunah, and that made them l- that made them

04:20 let go. So the Rebbe said that lesson we have to learn out that if that could happen by goyim, and as the Gemara says in Baba Basra, leit hei, teirah shelo meshaloni kesichah be'teirah shelo ham, that for sure what happened by them happens in a good thing. Certainly by us, that from there we can learn out by Yidden that if you're ma'avir somebody's emunah, it could change min ha'kotzeh la'kotzeh, from one extreme to the other. And therefore, the Rebbe made the three lessons to take. The main thing is the inyan of Hashgochah Protis. The second thing, that when it comes to Torah and mitzvahs and to pikuach nefesh, everyone is equal. And the third thing, what-- how important it is to be ma'avir their emunah. And this, even though this was not something negueid to Yidden davka, but there were Yidden among those people. We all remember that the p-- everyone was, uh, really afraid and scared. But the Rebbe said the Aibishter made a nes, and we have to learn out a lesson from this.