You can find a Hebrew version of this blog here.
- Have you ever made a contingency plan that required sacrifice and faith?
- How did you stick to the plan during difficult circumstances?
On September 17th.18th, 2024, after a summer of darkness, there was a sudden blast of hope. The Mossad’s pager and walkie talkie operation burst through the clouds of despair. The first phase was the explosion of almost 5,000 pagers in the hands of senior Hezbollah commanders and officers. The next day, thousands of walkie talkies also exploded. These devices detonated across Lebanon and parts of Syria, killing at least 42 Hezbollah operatives and injuring around 3,500, with approximately 1,500 fighters wounded. The explosives’ pinpoint lethality targeted only the users, sparing nearby civilians. This surgical strike, triggered by coded messages, turned trusted tools into weapons, shattering Hezbollah’s command structure.
Espionage is planned for a reason and not a season. Seeds are planted with purpose. Fortified by faith. And often act at a time known only to Hashem/G-d.
Mossad carefully planned how to mitigate the threat of the Hezbollah terrorists in Southern Lebanon.
Over many years, Israeli intelligence, operating under the guise of a fake Hungarian company called BAC Consulting, infiltrated Hezbollah’s supply chain. They embedded 1-2 grams of precisely calibrated high-grade explosives, likely PETN or RDX, into 5,000 pagers and over 16,000 walkie talkies that Hezbollah trusted for secure communication. Mossad amplified the ruse with a sophisticated social media and advertising campaign, promoting the pagers and walkie talkies as durable, reliable alternatives to cell phones, while planting seeds of doubt about cell phones’ vulnerabilities to surveillance.
The operation’s genius lay in its decade-long orchestration and psychological warfare. This blend of technical precision and psychological manipulation broke Hezbollah’s spirit and redefined the battlefield. While Hezbollah fighters and commanders no longer carried their electronics, they carried a burden of fear and worry.
This cascade of disruption culminated in the assassination of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on September 27th, 2024, in a precision Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Guided by meticulous intelligence, F-15I jets struck a fortified compound, killing Nasrallah and senior commanders, with at least 33 dead and over 195 injured, primarily Hezbollah members due to the strike’s targeted nature. This surprise attack was poetically paired with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s UN Security Council Address. While leaders of the world watched Bibi with rapt attention, Nasrallah was evicted from this world.
Espionage of Exodus
In Numbers 13–14, Moses sends twelve spies to the land of Canaan. They spend forty days traversing the Promised Land. But when they return, ten are overcome by fear. “We looked like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and so we appeared to them” (Numbers 13:33).
All twelve spies agreed that the Land of Israel was full of danger and risks. However, only two of the 12 spies, Caleb and Joshua had confidence that they could successfully defeat the threatening armies and take possession of the land. They urged the people to believe in God’s promise. “The land we passed through to explore is exceedingly good… Do not fear the people of the land… the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” (Numbers 14:7–9)
The other ten spies threatened to stone Caleb and Joshua to death. Moses was persuaded, and Joshua and Caleb led the path into the promised land.
Faith Over Fear: What fortified the faith and determination of Joshua and Caleb?
How can spies remain resolute on their mission in spite of the obstacles?
What made Caleb and Joshua different? Joshua and Caleb were not just spies. They were spiritual warriors:
Joshua whose name means “salvation” (a foreshadowing of Jesus), is a warrior. He once battled Amalek, a foe destined to clash with Israel for generations, and would later be asked by Moses to lead the Children of Israel into the Promised Land (Exodus 17: 8-13).
Caleb, whose name means “heart”, went to Hebron, to the Cave of Machpelah, the burial site of Abraham and Sarah, to pray (Sotah 34b). While others gathered intelligence, Caleb gathered courage.
Spying, is not only about seeing the land, but about seeing ourselves. That requires heart. It is fervent faith in God that enables us to overcome present challenges and in order to seek future possibilities.
Miracles
The Hebrew word for “Miracle” is “Nes.” The Torah, curiously, never uses the word “Nes. Although there are many wonders, none are specifically called out as miracles.
Hanukkah: The Festival of Espionage
Hanukkah can provide a greater insight into the concept of miracles.
The two miracles in the Hanukkah story are the Oil lasting for eight days in the temple which inspired the Hanukkiah (Menorah) lighting tradition. This is a miracle of g-d/hashem. The second miracle is the underdog victory of the smaller Maccabee army over the much larger Syrian Greek army. This is a miracle of man.
Hanukkah is celebrated with light emanating from darkness. A light illuminating a festival of faith within the winter solstice. But its miracles are rooted in shadow.
The dreidel, the humble spinning top, was once a decoy. Under Syrian-Greek persecution, Torah study was forbidden. Jewish children would keep watch outside as they played with their seemingly innocent tops, while adults studied inside in secret. If soldiers approached, the children deceptively spin their dreidiels and make playful cries to alert the adults to hide the torah.
The first time that the word Nes is introduced is in the context of celebrating Hanukkah.
On Hanukkah, dreidels have two versions:
- “Nes Gadol Haya Sham” — A great miracle happened there.
- This version is played outside of Israel
- “Nes Gadol Haya Po” — A great miracle happened here.
- This version is played inside of Israel
The idea of Great Miracles (Nes Gadol) happening inside and outside of Israel is a prophetic reminder of the global reach of Mossad to reach any target anywhere.
Another important biblical reference to spying occurs in the Book of Judith (in the Apocryphal texts).
Judith is the unsung heroine of the Hanukkah story. With guile and grace, she carefully and repeatedly entered the camp of the Syrian-Greek General Holofernes. She tricked the guards to accept her coming and going as a welcoming reprise for the general. Armed with beauty, wine, and cheese; she seduced him into a drunken stupor. She then decapitated him and carried his severed head it back as a trophy of victory, even in front of the unsuspecting guards. Her act wasn’t just bravery; it was a calculated strike, a psychological blow that sent the enemy fleeing in terror. Her story, though not in the main Hanukkah text, was so revered that her face was painted by Michaelangelo on the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel.
Pictured above: Judith carrying the head of Holofernes. Artist: Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel Ceiling, Vatican City, c. 1512.
Just as Judith’s deed of decapitation struck fear into the Syrian-Greeks, the Mossad’s pager operation left Hezbollah reeling; a modern echo of ancient audacity.
Conclusion
Mossad, like the spies of old, understands the power of legacy. Each operation is a dreidel spun in the face of oppression, a declaration that Israel’s enemies will never rest easy. From the Promised Land to Lebanon, from Hanukkah’s miracles to modern espionage, the thread is unbroken: faith fortifies and human hands craft the wonders we call miracles.
May we learn to wait in silence, act with purpose, and believe with all our hearts. And may we remember: even when we cannot see it, a miracle may already be waiting hidden in plain sight.
Appendix:
Commemorating the Avengers:
Spy Legends: Medals of Memory, Seeds of Eternity
When Judith returned to the town of Bethulia, with Holofernes’ head wrapped in her belongings, Uzziah, the leader in Judaea said to her:
“O daughter, you are blessed by the God most high above all other women on earth… Your praise will never depart from the hearts of those who remember the power of God. May God grant this to be a perpetual honor to you, and may he reward you with blessings, because you risked your own life when our nation was brought low, and you averted our ruin, walking in the straight path before our God.” And all of the people said, “Amen, Amen!”
– The Book of Judith 13: 15-20
In this spirit of honoring Judith, Spylegends.com has created a set of Medals to commemorate the missions of Mossad, like operation Grim Beeper.
The purpose of these medals is to:
- Remember those lost
- Honor those who acted
- Deter those who plot harm
The courage of such spies, ancient and modern, finds a quiet tribute in the work of Spy Legends, a website dedicated to preserving the legacy of espionage and missions of Mossad.
Through their collection of commemorative medals, Spy Legends honors the valor of operatives, each piece a testament to missions that shaped history. These medals, etched with codes, symbols, and intricate details, are more than artifacts; they are seeds of memory, carrying the stories of bravery into the future. Accompanied by brochures that illuminate the missions’ significance, they serve as educational tools, inviting us to reflect on the sacrifices made in the shadows.
Breaking Matzo readers can get a 10% discount on these these commemorative medals using the promo code: breakingmatzo
Personal Statement from Avner Avraham, founder of Spylegends.com
I was a bad student in school, and I didn’t like history classes the most. They forced me to read boring “books without pictures”. The medals are a different and creative way to commemorate and tell a big story. Each medal comes with a brochure in Hebrew and English that explains the story. The medals always have a lot of small details, sometimes secret and hidden. Some are explicit and some are hidden.
I arrived at MOSSAD at the age of 22 and retired at the age of 50. The organization has an obligation to keep documents, but there is no importance or instruction to keep objects. Over 3 decades, I collected thousands of objects that became a special spy collection, from which I built the Spy Museum before I retired.
The Beeper Operation is undoubtedly the most important and decisive operation carried out by the Mossad, and perhaps the most advanced in the world in its complexity and combination of many capabilities, cunning, timing and very deep thinking.
Efforts were made not to harm those not involved, and that was the case. The goal was not to kill, but to injure in a way that would not allow those terrorists to continue to operate against us. Each such wounded person became living testimony to his mistake, of his organization that is currently collapsing and disarming. The work is being continued in a smart way by the United States government, which supports the new regime in Lebanon and brings it out of the darkness into the light.
To date, I have produced 9 different medals for famous operations. This time we chose to produce a medal in the shape of a rectangle. We were thinking of something the size of a credit card, but very quickly we reached a size almost identical to the original Beeper.
I have researched and lectured on the MOSSAD’s assassination operations. There was never any revenge there! Not even after the massacre of 11 members of the Israeli delegation to the 1972 Munich Games. The goal was and still is – to stop the terrorists from continuing to harm us. To remove them from the chain of evil and murder.
The massacre of October 7, in which thousands of terrorists invaded from Gaza – land that was fully handed over to them, is a shocking event that has not ended. It is worth noting that Nasrallah and the Hezbollah organization – which operate with the funding and guidance of Iran, decided to start a war against Israel the day after tomorrow, on October 8, and to send dozens and later hundreds of missiles at our communities and our innocent citizens. Justice was done, among other things, through this amazing operation!
Appendix:
“The LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.” (Exodus 17:16)
The Children of Israel will fight against Amalek for all generations. There will always be an enemy testing our resolve and fighting against us.
Amalek is a nation descended from Esau, Jacob’s brother, through Esau’s grandson. Seen in the Torah as a symbol of evil and opposition to Israel.
In Exodus 17:8–16, Amalek attacks the Israelites in the wilderness shortly after the Exodus from Egypt. Joshua leads the Israelite’s defense and defeats Amalek in battle. After the battle, God declares that He will be at war with Amalek from generation to generation:
In Deuteronomy 25:17–19, God commands Israel to remember what Amalek did and to “blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”
Enjoy a haiku inspired by this blog:
Spy for a reason,
Not a season—faith revealed,
Hidden in plain sight.
You can find a Hebrew version of this blog here.
