Monday, February 2, 2009

MIRACLES IN ISRAEL

No one doubts that the establishment of the State of Israel, after Hitler's decimation of European Jewry, was an open miracle. Scattered around the world, hated everywhere they lived, persecuted in the north and the south, the east and the west, Jews survived and even thrived. But sometimes we forget that every day that Israel doesn't implode -- surrounded by its sworn enemies, many times its' size -- is a miracle we should never take for granted.

And most astonishingly is the following framework for something we have all become intuitively aware.

Do we realize the magnitude of the miracle we recently experienced in Gaza.

The world is now far too well acquainted with the fright and terror experienced by the Jews who live within striking distance of our enemies in Gaza. The panic and hysteria that occurs when a siren goes off and a missile is imminent has been depicted in a frightening film on this website and has been viewed over a million times.

As painful as each and every casualty is, thank God, the losses have been comparatively minimal. But do we realize the magnitude of the miracle before our eyes?

Harold Gans is a mathematical consultant and international lecturer throughout North America, Israel, Australia and South Africa. He was a Senior Cryptologic Mathematician with the National Security Agency, United States Department of Defense until his retirement after 28 years of service. He recently reported the following:

On Jan. 5, 2009, Ehud Barak, Defense Minister of Israel, announced that 125 Grad-Katyusha missiles had fallen on populated areas of Beersheva, Ashkelon and Ashdod. This is 40% of the missiles fired; the remaining 60% fell in open areas. Of the 40% that hit populated areas of these cities, 2% hit buildings. I obtained satellite photos of Beersheva, Ashkelon and Ashdod. My analysis indicated that the average percentage of the ground covered by buildings in these three cities is 39.7%. This takes into account the different sizes of these cities.

Now, the expected rate of rockets hitting buildings should be the same as the percentage of the ground covered by buildings: 39.7%. Yet it is only 2%. The odds of this happening by chance are 100,000,000,000,000,000: 1.

Note that this has nothing to do with the bad aim of these missiles; we are only counting the 40% that actually did fall in populated areas of these cities.

God has given us a universe that is saturated with wonder and amazement. When we tune in to the marvels that surround us we can feel His presence and experience unparalleled joy. But there's a whole class of miracles that is easy to miss -- the "non-events" of life. In some ways, they can be even more providential than the obvious one.

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