“I Saw Hashem’s Hand”: A Soldier’s Powerful Testimony

This incredible story, first shared by Ohad Shaked in the “Shulchan Shabbat” weekly bulletin, quickly went viral across social media.

“The story was told to me by my former student, who today is an Iron Dome battery commander in Israel,” Shaked wrote.

“On Sunday, A., one of the Iron Dome battery commanders, called me. He had been my student about six years ago. I was so happy to hear from him. ‘Where can one study Torah in Ramat Gan?’ he asked me. I was surprised, since he had always been far from Torah observance and keeping mitzvot.

‘I'm going to be discharged in a few months, and I want to start learning in a yeshiva,’ he said. Then he added something that gave me chills: ‘I saw Hashem with my own eyes!’

I asked him what had happened, and he began to describe an experience that changed his life.

‘A missile was fired from Gaza,’ he said. ‘The Iron Dome system is extremely precise. It calculates exactly where a missile will land, within about a 200-meter radius. This one was heading straight for the Azrieli Towers, the Kirya base, or the train station, any of those locations would have meant disaster. Hundreds of people could have been killed.

We launched the first interceptor. It missed. Then a second. Missed. A third. Also missed.

That almost never happens. Until that day, we had only seen this happen twice.

I was in shock. We had just four seconds until the missile would hit. We immediately notified emergency services, ambulances, police, fire crews and activated our terror attack protocol.’

And then came the moment that changed everything.

‘Suddenly,’ he said, ‘without any input from us or the system, no logic, no wind pattern, an incredibly strong wind blew from the east. We had no idea where it came from. And it pushed the missile west right into the sea.

We all stood there stunned. I jumped up and shouted, “There is a God! There is a God! There is a God!”

I didn’t hear this from anyone else. I saw it with my own eyes. I saw Hashem’s hand push the missile away from the city and into the water.

Some of the religious soldiers around me weren’t as shaken, because for them, miracles are something they already believe in. But for me, this was a life-changing moment.’

Due to security protocols, the date of the incident wasn’t made public, and no official reports were released. But A. said that anyone who opens their eyes can see the miracles that happen regularly, especially in places filled with people. ‘It’s clear that Hashem exists,’ he said.

After this experience, he ran to one of the religious soldiers at the base and asked to put on tefillin, the small black boxes containing Torah verses that Jewish men wear during weekday morning prayers. He also made a personal decision to begin keeping Shabbat. ‘It was the best Shabbat I’ve ever had,’ he told me.

Shaked, deeply moved by his former student’s transformation, wrote:

‘I had a tear in my eye when I heard it. I told him, “How fortunate you are to have witnessed such a clear sign from Hashem, and to truly recognize what you saw.”’

The story spread quickly on social media, sparking emotional reactions and a flood of questions. Some people asked whether the account was real. Shaked responded to as many as he could but wasn’t able to provide personal details, due to the sensitive nature of the story.

Still, for those who heard it and felt its truth, no further proof was needed.