The Lion Awoke a Second Time

Wow, how it has all begun to unfold.

For decades, a generation grew up doubting whether this land truly belonged to them, and compromises that cost us so dearly in blood and sacrifice. 

Yet it now seems that we are reaching a turning point. The Rebbe’s visionary words are beginning to materialize before our eyes.

So, the question is: What now? Where do we go after the second war with Iran?

This week, the writer and Chabadnik Nir Menussi shared a powerful idea in a Zoom lecture.

He suggested that the return of the Jewish people to their land unfolds in three stages.

The first stage was a national refuge.
The founders of the State of Israel wanted safety. After centuries of persecution, the Holocaust, and relentless antisemitism, Jews wanted a place under the sun where they could live in peace. That is why they blurred Jewish identity into a broader “Israeli” identity. They did not dream of transforming the world; they wanted to survive.

Just let us eat falafel in peace.

According to Menussi, this stage lasted until October 7. And then the dream shattered. The illusion exploded, and the price was terrible.

Painful as it is, reality is pushing us toward something far greater.

For years, we imagined ourselves as a “villa in the jungle.” We believed we could remain safe while the jungle remained unchanged.

 But that illusion collapsed. We now understand that we cannot simply manage the conflict or hide behind the Iron Dome.

This brings us to the second stage: Israel as a regional power.

Today, Israel is reshaping the Middle East. It confronts Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, Lebanon, and Iran. The language has shifted. No longer merely survival—now it is leadership and transformation.

Germany’s Chancellor said it openly this week: Israel is doing the dirty work for the entire world. Many others know it as well, even if they do not say it aloud.

But even this is not the final stage.

The third stage is far greater.

After becoming a refuge and then a regional power, Israel must become a global beacon.

The Jewish people were never meant merely to survive. Our mission is to radiate blessing, Torah, faith, peace, and holiness to the entire world. As G-d promised Abraham:  “Through you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

It is the fulfillment of the verse: “From Zion shall go forth Torah.”

To reach that stage, we must leave behind the mindset of trauma and survival and step into a broader consciousness—one that elevates humanity.

But this also requires humility. We must not become intoxicated with power. The danger is to fall into the illusion of “my strength and the might of my hand.” Our destiny is greater than that.

The world is watching.
And it is waiting.

Operation “Am Kalavi” may have been over seven months ago, or perhaps not entirely. Because when a lion awakens and roars, it does not fall asleep so quickly.

Something has changed within the Jewish people.

A new consciousness has emerged—and it will not disappear.

One of the first to sense this shift is the Prime Minister himself. Listen carefully to how Benjamin Netanyahu has been speaking in recent days. His language has changed.

At his first press conference after the beginning of bombings in Iran in partnership with the American Air Force, he opened with an unexpected memory:

“Dear citizens of Israel. When I was first elected Prime Minister, I participated in the March of the Living at Auschwitz. There, I suddenly felt a strong need to wrap myself in a tallit. I wrapped myself in it and recited: Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad.”

Then he continued:

“Ten days ago, just hours before embarking on the historic operation against the evil regime in Iran, I went to the Western Wall. Again, I felt a strong need to wrap myself in a tallit.”

When I first saw the photo of him wrapped in a tallit at the Wall, I wondered about it. We are accustomed to seeing prime ministers wearing a kippah there, but a tallit?

Netanyahu himself answered the question:

“I prayed for the success of our heroic pilots, our soldiers and commanders, for the security of our country and the peace of our people.

At the end of the press conference, he added something even more striking:

“The most important faction in the Knesset is ‘Sayata Dishmaya’—Divine help.”

He spoke of the bravery of soldiers and citizens, the support of allies, and the help of Hashem.

Some dismissed his words as politics.

But I believe him.

After everything Israel has experienced in recent months, why assume that the Jewish spark cannot awaken within the Prime Minister as well?

After all, it has awakened in Jews across the world, even the most distant and assimilated ones.

And consider what was expected.

Each life lost is an entire world. But when one considers the scale of what could have been, the conclusion is unavoidable: 

The operation is now successful beyond all imagination.

It is a chain of miracles.

This is not one miracle or two. It is a cascade of one miracle resting upon another.

Some we know about.
Others we may never know.

Think of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump during the election rally. Imagine if the bullet had not missed by a few centimeters. Where might the world be today?

That alone is one miracle among thousands.

Here is another astonishing moment.

Israeli intelligence operatives used a fake phone call to summon the entire senior leadership, including Khameini the Supreme Iranian leader.

 and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Aerospace Force, to an emergency meeting in a fortified bunker outside Tehran.

Forty top commanders arrived.

Moments before Israel launched its opening strikes, that bunker was hit with a precise airstrike.

All were eliminated, including the Supreme Iranian Leader, the Murderer Khameini.

With the entire missile command wiped out, no one remained to order the massive retaliation Iran had planned.

A catastrophe was avoided.

Yet precisely at moments like this, we must be careful.

After the miracles of the Six-Day War, Israel fell into arrogance—and soon after came the shock of the Yom Kippur War.

Today, the trajectory is reversed. We descended into the abyss of October 7, and from there rose to astonishing victories.

But the danger of arrogance remains.

That is why it was so significant to hear the Prime Minister publicly thank the Creator of the world again.

Perhaps he experienced his own Queen Esther moment when Mordechai told her:

“Who knows if it was for this very moment that you attained royalty?”

We are living through a time of massive Jewish awakening.

This is not a moment for passivity.

It is a time for the Jewish people to rise again like lions, rediscover our deepest essence, and illuminate the entire world with faith, holiness, and truth.

May we see it fully realized speedily in our days.

Shabbat Shalom, AM ISRAEL CHAI!

Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky