It’s almost impossible to fathom how much of a catastrophe and tragedy yesterday's flight hijack (or, as the Western media called it, an altercation) could have been. Had the co-pilot not been defeated, Israel would have been faced with a horrific choice: shoot down a plane with 180 passengers, or do nothing and risk even more people being killed.
How was it avoided? Well, it is explained that the pilot, although stabbed in his head and hands and bleeding out, managed to unlock the cabin door. And the passengers were then able to force their way in and overpower the copilot. And one of the passengers who did this happened to have watched a TV show about planes and knew how to pull the plane out of the nose-dive. And he did it without too many parts of the plane breaking off. And there also happened to be off-duty pilots on the plane who were able to land the damaged plane after the pilots were incapacitated. Meanwhile, there was also a Jewish dentist who tended to the wounded pilot.
Many people would call all this a miracle. And I think it’s fair to do so. Not that there was necessarily a supernatural intervention. But, consistent with how rationalist rabbis from Rambam to Rav Soloveitchik explain miracles, this was an incredibly fortuitous combination of factors and events, which resulted in an extraordinary outcome. (Rav Yoel Bin-Nun has a fascinating article in which he gives this as an instance of how Rambam describes Divine assistance accompanying a person, awakening and encouraging him to undertake a great and valuable act, such as rescuing a group of people; a person who experiences this awakening, Rambam explains, is said to have been touched by “the spirit of the Lord.”)
But here’s the problem. Some people only call it a miracle. One person told me that they were worried that the passengers, all being secular Israelis, would not know to credit God with their rescue. That is not the case; most “secular” Israelis very much acknowledge God, and the passengers were effusive about thanking Him. I’m more concerned about certain religious Jews not giving sufficient credit to others who were involved.
The plane was saved because, after pilot Smit Machchhar somehow found the strength to open the cockpit door, several Israeli men got up - while the plane was plummeting through the sky - and took action. There’s all kinds of jokes going around as a result. Here’s one hilarious video:
The following piece by someone named Jtlich is also making the rounds:
“I owe every flight full of Israelis an apology.
“Yes, having everyone standing in the aisle immediately upon landing is stressful. Yes, the rogue babies crawling up and down the corridor is a lot. Yes, blocking the bathroom for minyan is inconvenient.
“But when things go sideways?????? Give me 150 Israelis and Jews on that plane. I want the doctors, pilots, engineers, Mossad agents, and at least three people who are suspiciously calm because “hakol beseder I’ve handled worse!!!”
Now, here there is a common error of conflating different types of people. There’s the people who are brusque, sometimes coarse, and often annoyingly refusing to conform to Western social norms, but who you want on a plane to take on the terrorists if there’s a hijacking. These are secular and traditional/ religious Israelis, who have done army service, which gives them the initiative, bravery and ability to act. There’s also the people with lots of kids but who are often doctors or engineers, and also useful to have during a crisis - generally dati Israelis and American modern Orthodox Jews.
And then there’s the people who sometimes block the aisles because they are making a minyan and don’t care about how it affects others. They tend to be charedi. And they are not going to be of any use if there’s a hijacking.
I’m pretty sure that even charedim themselves, if on a plane during a hijacking, would much rather have some former IDF soldiers on the plane than other charedi yeshiva students - just like in general they very much want the same IDF protection as everyone else. Of course, don’t expect this to make them change their minds; when I made such an argument to one charedi yeshiva student, he admitted to me that he would indeed prefer there to be former soldiers there, but he claimed that it’s only the Torah study of charedim in yeshiva which would ensure that this would happen!
It’s an incredibly contrived argument, but is there a counterargument? Yes, and it’s very simple: the Torah itself tells us that when there is a threat, people need to fight, not learn Torah. We need soldiers to defend us, not Torah students. Sure, they will davven - but personally I’d much rather have the merit of davvening from people who make sacrifices for others, and whose Torah is worth something.