Rabbi Nachman Seltzer – Miracles, Missiles and Mesiras Nefesh

[Music] Welcome to Inside Arts Scroll, where the books that we read and the people that write them come to life. It's a true pleasure to welcome Rabbi Nahmed Seltzer all the way from Ramape Sheamesh to Inside Arts Scroll. Shalom, Rabbi Seltzer. Shalom. Thank you for having me. It's aus. It's a merit. Rabbi Seltzer, we're here to discuss a book which I think is going to become probably your bestselling book ever. The book Miracles, Missiles, and Mserus Nephesh. Uh, a deep dive into the world post October 7th. And before we begin, I want to ask you a personal question. Rabbi Seltzer, you have written novels, fiction, biographies. I mean, 30, 40 books. I'm assuming maybe even more. more. Um, this book will be the probably I think it's number 54. Unbelievable. That's crazy. That's crazy. Three times high. But I don't think that I ever knew Nakman Seltzer as a journalist. I as an author, as an prolific author, as a fascinating author, I read this book and it was a masterpiece of journalism. Do you view the book as as a as journalism or as telling the story? How did you approach it? I don't know if you saw the cover yet, but the book is uh in essence it's a little bit of a collaboration because I spoke to Rabbi Katsover who's a uh one of the oldest military journalists in Eritus. He was already a military journalist from the time of Ley Eshko and anytime I need to get the background story of any interesting event, he's the my go-to person. So, it's it is a form of journalism. Combine that with incredible stories of Msus Nephesh. Combine that with incredible stories of miracles and you get miracles, missiles and ms nephesh. So yes, there's definitely a big element where I wanted to go behind the scenes and and because I I mean I'll tell you what happened to me. I'm like, you know, the year was was it was a very challenging year. And the beginning of the year, it just seemed like we're just getting it's getting worse and worse. And then suddenly in a 10day period, suddenly I I before the 10-day period, suddenly things start happening and and and they Israel assassinates one guy and then Israel assassinates another guy, right? And then they assassinate another guy and I'm like, "Okay, I mean the things are happening now. They're taking off the gloves. They're getting ready to fight back." And then we get to the 17th of se of of September between the I think it was the 17th and the 27th where suddenly everything changed. It was it was when the beepers went off. That's the beginning of the That's the first thing. all over the middle, all over Lebanon, Syria, Iran, pages are exploding in an incredible pinpointed uh you know attack just on terrorists that was started like years and years ago in a brilliant move and it culminates with Nasala's death 10 days later and I'm like this is Vahaku and that's the story orig and and I I realized I couldn't didn't just focus on 10 days. I had to tell the story of the year and show the progress the trajectory of what happened because it was like a buildup of incredible miracles. So while it was a very hard year and there was a lot of sadness and a lot of pain and a lot of challenges at the same time who showed us incredible miracles and miracles and more miracles because we started off the year with what they call the ring of fire around there you know with 250,000 missiles kamas with hundreds of thousand missiles Iran with countless missiles Syria with countless missiles and Barashem at this point that wall, that ring of fire is no longer what it was, you know, even four months ago. And it's inc it's all it's all miracles. So I want my goal with the book was to show the to show everyone that look at the mir at the miracles that did for you know October 7th was a was really such a terrible thing but that led to an outcome that changed the whole Middle East. Fascinating. You know, when when when I read through the book, I felt like I was on an emotional journey. Like there were a lot of tears, especially in the beginning of the book when you say some of the stories of October 7th, which maybe we'll come into in a second. And then slowly but surely how the Yad Hashem begins to reveal itself. And I began to understand that even the sad parts, Hashem hadn't forgotten about us because in such a beautiful way, you wo into the narrative, it's all Hashem. It's all Hashkah. And it just becomes more and more intense. And Hashem slowly but surely peels away the layers and you see how what could have happened didn't happen and what happened it it was an incredible hashkah. I mean just reading through the book you finish and you're like wow I need to breathe. So fascinating. So let's let's let's try to do this chronologically. I know in the beginning um you share especially from all cats over some of the incredible heartbreak of October 7th. I mean maybe just bring us into like a tiny little snippet of something that you write about. uh pertaining to October 7th itself. So I mean for if I'm going into the Saul Cassover. So he was they asked the journalists where they wanted to go and he said he wanted to go to Shur. Shur was the place where they brought the bodies and so he was there covering that and he watched the Kadisha and it was very very hard for him to see it because he saw Gats as he told me many times for many many years he's been covering the the briefings of the heads of the Shabbak the heads of the Mossad the heads of the army and everyone's like we're the best and we could do anything and we're we're great and suddenly he's like you know Rabai look what you did like for him as a person who's as a military journalist who for decades has been hearing from them we could do anything where Kal and suddenly you know and and he told me an amazing thing which with Sinoir he he was there when Sinir was released out of jail when uh when they did the whole thing for Gilad Shalid he was there I have a picture in the book I have a lot of great pictures in this book his son Ariel Katzover works in the prime minister's office they got a lot of amazing pictures so sinir was released and and he wouldn't sign they that Israel said he have everyone has to sign a document stating they're not going to go back to terrorism and and they signed every everyone it was a joke but Sinoir wouldn't sign. he wouldn't sign and that threw a spoke, you know, a wrench in the spokes and they stopped giving him back those that day to try to figure out to do it. In the end, they let him go without signing and cuz they said, you know, what does what difference does it really make if he signs or not? Cuz anyways, if he wants to go back to terrorism, we'll go back to terrorism. And he became a hero on the Palestinian street as the man who stood up to Israel and didn't sign. And that guy became the hero. He's the He was the mastermind of October 7th. And I'll tell you one thing to me that was unbelievable. They were sitting together. They have all the records of these meetings, him and his top guys. And he's with them and he's like, "We're going to we're going to use we're going to go through the fence." And they're like, "How we go through the fence? The fence is a billion dollar fence. How are we going to break through the fence?" He's like, "We're going to break through the fence. It's not a big deal." I already built a mockup of the fence and I used a bulldozer to crash through it and it's nothing. Five minutes and we're through. That's how this guy was a he was listen was he wasn't a stupid person. He was a smart person and he used his brains to to to for evil and to me that was like a a crazy thing. So, so Kat is like he's like he can't believe it and he's in Shur and he's watching the most heartbreaking thing because he said one of the things was Kamas they worked so hard to make sure that you couldn't identify the bodies. They they worked in such a terrible way that no one ever did this before. No one ever went out of their way to try to make sure that no one should be able to identify bodies. And that's what happened. He said he said when he came to Shur he was hearing clapping. He was hearing begging and he didn't understand what it was. And eventually he fel he figured out it was the sound of soldiers building coffins. Just hundreds and hundreds of coffins. We can't say it was a it was heartbreaking for him on many many levels. But uh you know he's seen a lot and he's a stoic and a person who's able to you know to go through everything but it was a very very hard thing for him. Remn, you know, the the the culture on the street in Israel around the period of October 7th was very splintered. There was great disparity between the different communities. Um, as somebody who lived in Eritus, someone who has his finger on the pulse, did that change post October 7th? And most for the follow question is today, you know, a year and a half after 500 something days later. Um, is a still there if it was? And what do you feel personally? I feel that before October 7th, I think for the first time in my life, I really felt there was a chance of a civil war in Israel. And it was only the fact that Kamas attacked us that put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Nothing else could have put Humpty Dumpty back together then. if not only kamas only a war because brothers you know aimk these guys I I met one of these guys he was I I took my family in a boat ride in hero and and the skipper was an older guy who told me he goes to these protests aim banek I told him I want to tell you something buddy I'm not really afraid of anything in the country really but the one thing that scares me are you you people scare me because you guys will burn down the country to try to save it you scare me and you know what that is not it's not the way it was the fact everyone understands on a most people I say everyone but the majority of people are not where they were before it's a different situation there's a lot more support for BB N but I I think a lot of people understand that that the only way we could survive in this neighborhood is if we're together and and and a lot of fault came from the the the left media and from the and the people who are are you know people on the radio television constantly bombarding people with the message of you know just making that that rift greater it was a very bad situation. So what turns out that October 7th was was a was a covered in den but it was a because it pulled the country back together again. Share with us um in the book you have a beautiful example of how beef jerky brought yen together. talk to us a little bit about beef jerky. So there's a there's a person in the sh I'm one of the founding members of the fact and there's a person in the shim and he came over to me he said to me you know I got to tell you a story and it was interesting as I was wring the book people coming over to me and and each person everything was sending me things that need to go into the book because this is like the mysterious nish of of the beauty of kais is the flip side of you know you have hundreds of people coming and volunteering to prepare beef jerky to put it into bags and the kids are writing messages on the bags of of to the soldiers and then they deliver these bags of beef jerky up and they have a bad on the bag of beef jerky. Well, because the soldier is only eating tuna fish and he's in a tank up north and he's sitting there cold and hungry and he doesn't like tuna fish and suddenly he gets a bag of beef jerky which is gishmak and it tastes good and it's light and it's not heavy to carry your bag and he opens up the bag and he's eating beef jerky with a with a from the donated by people from and from other places and there's a message from a kid on the bag that says thank you for what you're doing you're saving us keep up the good work and and so many of these people called up afterwards and were like, you know, thank you so much for what you did because you really gave us, you know, I was at a point where I was like, I can't do this anymore. I'm away from my family for half a year. I can't do this anymore. And suddenly I open up this bag in my bottom of my of my bag and I find this little bag of of beef jerky and I see the message from a kid and I'm and I realize why I'm doing this. And you know, it's a thousands and tens of thousands of bags of beef jerky given out to soldiers all over the country to keep them to give them the protein they need to do the job they need to do. And it's a beautiful thing. And I said, I I really want to include that chapter in the book because it's the flip side. It's a flip side of the evil. It's the good the the beauty. You know, you spoke about rah bedin like a strict justice cloaked in mercy. There's something that you come to a lot of times in the book which I think we need the mercy cloaked in justice, right? mercy cloaked injustice. Um you know and that and you mentioned this multiple times and that is that October 7th could have been a million times worse and that is because it could have been a war on multiple fronts. Share with us the incredible threat that was on Israel's border um that somehow just never came together and by now was totally decimated. All right. So the plan, the real plan was Iran is the mother ship and they give the orders and the plan was that that Kamas is going to attack, the Nukba force is going to attack and at the same time the Radwan force is going to attack from Kbala and Lebanon and they're going to all start shooting missiles and they're going to break the walls from the north and from the south at the same time. While that happens, the Israeli Arabs are going to up rise up from Janin, Taram, Sham, Ramala, rise up and start fighting the troops inside Israel. At the same time, theim from Yemen are going to start shooting missiles. They're going to start shooting missiles from Iran and from Iraq all at the same time. If that would have happened, even if just would have attacked Israel that day and they were ready to go, they had the motorcycles, they had the weapons, they were just as wellarmed as the Kamas was, if just that those two things would have happened and the army would have had to divide itself between those two fronts, they could have gotten the way all the way to Khifa. Who knows it would have happened and and and but Iran Iran told NASA not to do it. So you could say there's there's a there's two ways to look at it. There's more ways than two ways, but look at the two ways. One way is Iran says, "I I don't want them to do it because I'm afraid." One way is Hashem says, "No, I'm not letting them go in." Just like Hashem said to Kamas, you can go up to this point and no further. You could go to Tifra, but you'll see the yeshiva. You'll see a fire in the yeshiva and you're going to think it's a fire, but it's not a fire. You're not going to go in. You go to Fakim and on one road you could go and the other road you can't go and the other road you can't go. So that's one way. I'm going to I mean you can go up to here and not one step further even though there's no police on the roads I don't let you go further and so I don't let the Lebanese I don't let the radan force go in that's one way but there's another way which is there's al there's not there's one way Iran says what happens if we let if we let attack what happens if everyone attacks at once that's already a doomsday scenario that's a scenario when Israel may have no choice but to send out the submarines with the nukes and to destroy tan and to destroy Iran. That's the other side. So Iran may have been thinking of that scenario when they didn't let attack on the day of October 7th. That could have been the what they were thinking of. Maybe they were scared. It could be we don't know their but one is maybe it's maybe it's on the one hand they're scared on the other hand is putting who knows what's really going on. But there's there's these different things happening. On the one hand, Iran is scared to go because they know if you put Israel against the wall completely, outcome nuclear weapons. And by the way, there's an interesting thing that you know, this is just my take on it, but there was a Knesset who said who who g who said they interviewing him and he said they said, "Is you know, are nukes an option?" And he's like, "Yeah, nukes are an option." And everyone yelled at him, "What are you talking about? Can you say such a thing?" And to me, what what was I thinking when I heard that? I was thinking and again I it could be completely wrong but I I said these cats could it be that BBO sent him a message this is what I want you to say I want you to remind the world that we have nuclear weapons and everyone's going to yell at you and say you're crazy but they're going to remember we have nuclear weapons and they're going to calm down and and and and it could be and by the way he said to me it's very possible I don't know for sure I can't tell you for sure but it happens a lot where somebody who's on a lower level will say something that a person on a higher level can't say. Now I don't know for sure. I put that in the book. We'll see if the editors left it in. I don't know. But uh the point is I I think it's an important point because uh to me I was like wondering like why did he say that? I think he was giving a message from someone else to the world. Calm down everybody calm down. You know when crazy things like this happen even the most secular of Jews and people who are not mamm and for sure those who are mamim we're like yes people start uh people start uh wearing and shabas and the whole Israel starts singing a song about Hashem and then time fades and there's always the danger of the of the incredible miraculous genius coming back and there was incredible um intelligence and the beepers and how they got and all these crazy things. How do we hold on to the that so many people got and understand that that we continue and we and we constantly need to understand that Hashem runs the world and particularly when it comes to periods and chapters of history like post October 7th. So there's two qu you're ask me two how do we cl how do we from the from community or how does how does the the Jewish people in the world what's the question I think the question really is both how do we keep making sure that hashem is not forgotten and then even for us who we claim to be and how do we hold on to this inspiration and not let it fade so that life doesn't become just become business as usual okay so one of the reasons I wrote this book is that people should I want people I want to lay it out chronologically for people to understand what really happen because it's a big jumble in people's minds and they don't really understand. It's hard to understand what really happened cuz you're in you're like a ant on a wheel of a truck. You know something big is happening but you don't quite sure know what. So that's what's happening right now. Let me lay it out for you. Let me lay out the whole sequence of events and show you what was going on so that you understand. So, so you know on the one hand I I write this book so that people we should have it so that in two years and three years and four years from now you know when it starts to fade you have a book to remind you of what happened. But I think for every person now I can't tell you 20 years cuz you know 20 years ago there was September 11th and in America right now they said bin Laden is a great guy. So I can't say what's going to happen in 20 years, but I could say any Israeli who was alive on October 7th will never look at the army the same way again. And it doesn't matter how many beepers and how many is and how many, you know, whatever. It doesn't matter Masha and it doesn't matter if they kill him or it doesn't matter if that they killed that they killed, you know, it doesn't matter. Why? Because if the army that was so strong couldn't prevent a bunch of punks from from from Gaza coming across the border in pickup trucks that all that strength doesn't mean anything. If Hashem lets then you could stop a thousand missiles in the sky and no one will get hurt. A thousand ballistic missiles could come flying at a country and no one will get hurt. So we don't understand that. It's like we're living in a in we're living in Atari. You remember Tari? We're living in a in a We're living in a game. Remember going to the arcades, PJ's game room and would burn. We're living in an arcade. A thousand missiles coming at you and no one gets hurt. You're on a porch looking at it. That's when Hashem is on your side. And when Hashem is not on your side, a bunch of punks on motorcycles could kill 1500 people. I don't think anyone thinks that it's the army at this point. It's Hakaru. There's no question. It's only Hakaresh Bar. And if you want to know more more about Hakares Barl's involvement, you should probably buy the book. You should read it. It's compelling. It's emotional. And I was thinking to myself after the previous book that you wrote about October 7th, what else could he put in this book? It's a whole new world. It's brand new vistas. Thank you so much for sharing this gift with Clal Israel. Let's buy the book and we should read it once once a year twice a year going forward so that the and seeing Ashkah continues to be a part of our life. Rabbi Nahmed Selzer, thank you so much for yet another gift to Israel. Thank you for having me. And you tell I think in yeshivas they should start learning this as muser mus you learn miracles, missiles and snafes. We'll translate it into Hebrew and then maybe they'll do it. Yasha, thank you so much. It was a pleasure. Thank you. Heat. [Music]