How a Life Changing Meeting with the Lubavitcher Rebbe Transformed One Soldier’s Faith

Moshe Levy was seriously wounded during the Yom Kippur War. Since then, one question gave him no peace: why was his religious friend, who strengthened the military unit with faith, killed in the shelling, while he himself, who had vowed to put on tefillin, lost his hand? Years later, when he arrived in New York for medical treatment, a single meeting with Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson changed his outlook on life and gave him an answer that closed the circle.

Nine Days Under Fire

“When we entered the trenches, we saw the bodies of our soldiers lying on the tanks,” he recalled. “We understood that the situation was extremely difficult. For nine days we fought against Egyptian commandos who ambushed our tanks with missiles. It was an inferno of fire, like hail. Anyone who stood up was killed. I raised my right hand to grab the machine gun, and then a missile hit and severed it. The hand fell. I saw blood everywhere.”

Levy said that at that moment he believed he had no chance of surviving. “My plan was to take a grenade, run toward the Egyptian position, and blow myself up with them. I opened the grenade with my teeth and broke my two front teeth. I was covered in blood. Only after the last wounded soldiers were evacuated did I agree to be taken away. I lost three and a half liters of blood. At the hospital I asked the doctor if I would live, and he stayed silent. Years later he told me: ‘If I had answered honestly, I would have said no.’”

The Vow in the Heat of Battle

In an interview, Levy remembered the vow he made while relentless fire rained down on them. “A religious soldier in our company, Dani, pulled out a book of Tehillim and said, ‘With this we will stop the tanks.’ We all answered ‘Amen.’ And I said: ‘If I come out of this war alive, I will put on tefillin every day.’”

“The battle ended, but Dani was killed. And I, who vowed to put on tefillin, lost my hand. I didn’t understand why God did this.”

A Midnight Meeting That Changed Everything

After the war, when he traveled to New York to be fitted with a prosthetic arm, he received a call from the director general of Israel’s Ministry of Defense. “‘Moshe, the Lubavitcher Rebbe wants to see you,’ he told me. I answered that I didn’t have time, but he insisted: ‘The Rebbe will receive you at midnight.’ I said, ‘What kind of rabbi doesn’t sleep?’”

“I went in to meet him, and when I began speaking I couldn’t look him in the eyes. He had a gaze filled with strength and light. I told him about Dani who was killed and about my vow, and I asked: ‘So where is God?!’”

The Rebbe’s Answer

“The Rebbe looked at me and replied: ‘It is simple. Dani was born to strengthen you, and he completed his mission in this world. He strengthened you, fulfilled his purpose, and returned his soul to its Creator. You were meant to die, but you made a vow that if you lived you would put on tefillin. God took your hand so you would understand: it is not through action alone that one draws close to Him, but through “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.”’”

From Pain to Purpose

Levy concluded: “I felt an overwhelming sense of awe. I asked him whether I would succeed in life, and he smiled and said: ‘You will succeed greatly.’ And indeed, I completed my matriculation exams, earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, managed a company, and eventually bought it. I succeeded very much.”

“Years later I visited Rabbi David Abuchatzera and asked him for a blessing. He looked at me and said: ‘You want me to bless you? You sat with the Rebbe for an hour and forty five minutes. You should bless me, not the other way around.’”