From Special Ops to Haredi Rabbi: The Beirut Miracle That Changed His Life

On the third day of the First Lebanon War, Sivan 5742, Israeli forces reached Beirut Airport, only thirty kilometers from Damascus. The army hoped to continue advancing toward Damascus, but the troops were repeatedly struck by Katyusha rockets. Around the same time came the well known Battle of Sultan Yacoub, in which several Israeli soldiers remained missing for decades.

Intelligence later revealed that the Katyushas were being launched from the courtyard of the Russian embassy in Beirut. The army proposed shelling the launchers, but Prime Minister Menachem Begin objected. He did not want to risk opening another front against the Russians.

The IDF Chief of Staff, Rafael Eitan, chose another solution. A small commando unit would destroy the launchers in a precise surgical operation. The plan was extremely dangerous. The chances of survival were uncertain, yet politically it was impossible to bomb the embassy directly. Twelve soldiers from an elite secret unit were selected for the mission.

A Mission With No Way Out

On Friday night they boarded a helicopter near Sultan Yacoub and were inserted into Beirut early on Shabbat morning.

Eliezer Broida, one of the twelve soldiers, later recalled:
"The mission felt like suicide. Everything was lit up, and the Russian embassy was three and a half kilometers away. We had to decide whether to pass through the Christians in East Beirut, move closer to Sabra and Shatila in the south, or go near Beirut University, which was known as a global center for terror organizations."

The commander who had flown in from Israel to lead the operation did not know Beirut at all. The soldiers felt they were risking their lives in a mission that might ultimately serve political considerations more than military necessity.

The moment they began moving along Avenue de Gaulle, a barrage of Katyushas opened on them. One commander was killed immediately. Others were wounded. Snipers fired from every direction.

Over the radio the soldiers begged for air support, but the standing order was absolute: no air support in West Beirut.

With two dead and two wounded beside him, Eliezer Broida realized they had no chance of survival. All the training and preparation would not help them now.

For the first time in his life, he prayed.

"From the depths I called You, Hashem," he shouted.

Then he felt a response deep within his heart:

"I will get you out, but change your life."

Moments later, Israeli jets suddenly appeared in the sky, despite the explicit orders forbidding air support. One by one they destroyed the sniper positions and struck the Syrian batteries.

For two minutes the air thundered with explosions. Then everything fell silent.

The danger was gone.

As Broida stood with his comrades beside the fallen and wounded soldiers, an Israeli army jeep suddenly arrived.

"Did they send you to us?" he asked.

"No," came the answer. "We took a wrong turn."

With the escort of the jeep, the force continued toward the Russian embassy and destroyed the Katyusha launchers in a precise strike. Not even marks remained on the embassy walls.
All the remaining soldiers returned safely.

Later Broida thanked his commanders for sending the air support, but they were stunned.
Air support in West Beirut was forbidden. No authorization had ever been given.

To this day he does not know who the pilots were or how they arrived at that exact moment. But for him, the greater question was not who saved him. It was the promise he had made to the Creator of the world.

And he kept that promise.

A New Life

Eliezer Broida grew up in the United States in a prominent Israeli family, the Ludwig family. Later he adopted the name Broida in memory of his grandmother’s family, which had been destroyed in the Holocaust.

After completing a master's degree, he made aliyah to Kibbutz Sde Boker, following the Zionist ideal of David Ben-Gurion. Later he joined an elite military unit and served in the Yom Kippur War, Operation Litani, and the First Lebanon War.

But the mission in Beirut changed his life completely.

He left the unit and entered the Karlin yeshiva in Meah Shearim. His first challenge was learning Yiddish.

"You cannot learn in Karlin in Meah Shearim with sabra Hebrew, and not even with excellent English."

He persevered until he spoke Yiddish fluently.

His next challenge was Gemara. Although he had succeeded in many areas of life, he felt he had no real understanding of Talmud study. He devoted nine years to mastering it and eventually received rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Noach Weinberg of Aish HaTorah, Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, and Rabbi Kolitz, the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem.

A Rabbi Among Prisoners

After becoming a Torah scholar, Rabbi Broida became the rabbi of Ramla Prison, where he devoted himself to the spiritual and emotional rehabilitation of Jewish inmates.

At first the prisoners mocked him. The bearded rabbi who spoke Yiddish did not seem like someone who could guide them. But he soon demonstrated that he was not only a learned scholar but also a veteran of an elite combat unit. They came to respect him deeply, and he succeeded in helping many of them rebuild their lives.

Half of each day he devoted to Torah study in kollel. He also wrote a commentary on the Five Books of the Torah titled 'Pi HaBe’er.'

In the evenings he worked as a sofer STaM, writing tefillin and mezuzot. Later he founded a kollel of his own.

Most significantly, he became connected with Breslov and today oversees the wide distribution of Breslov books throughout Israel and around the world.