Tonight, the conclusion of the Holy Shabbat, the night of the 15th of Tammuz, marks the Hillula (anniversary of passing) of our master Rabbi Chaim ben Attar, the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh (the holy "Light of Life"). It is well known that during the years of World War II, Rommel's army stood at the gates of the Land of Israel. The entire Jewish community in the Land of Israel was in grave danger. It was then, in the merit of a mysterious prayer at the tziyun (gravesite) of the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh, that the Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel was saved from the claws of the Nazi beast. Before you is an excerpt from a lesson in which the Gaon and Tzaddik, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a (may he live long and good days), recounts this awesome event in all its details in honor of the Hillula of the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh:

Benjamin Rothschild, who built all the settlements here—he built Zichron Yaakov, he built Rishon LeZion, he built Metula. They asked him, "Why are you building Metula? Build near Tel Aviv, near Haifa." What did he say? "Wherever I build, that is where the border will be." He said this a hundred years ago, in 5642 (1882) or 5644 (1884), 120 years ago. He said, "Wherever I build, that is where the border will be." No one believed him; they thought he was talking nonsense. And when they divided [the land between] England and France, that is where the border became. France took Syria. After World War I, they divided Turkey; before they established the Arab states there, England took the Land of Israel and Egypt, and France took Syria. Later, when the Germans took France, they were in Syria. There was a German army in Syria. Anyone who is 80 years old today can remember when he was 20 or 17, he fought the Germans; there was a position 50 meters away from another position. There was a position in Metula, and 50 meters across from it was a German position. They saw them with the SS and everything. My mother told me that she spoke with people who fought against the Germans. They just didn't have an army [large enough] to conquer the Land of Israel; they were waiting for them to come from the south—for Rommel to come with the Italian army to conquer from the south. But they stood there ready so that the moment Rommel arrived, they would join him. The Land of Israel was in such a pincer movement. The Germans were here, 50 meters from Metula; there were positions.

They tell how Syria was in the hands of the Germans, how the Germans fought. How we were in a pincer. The Germans reached El Alamein. And [the Jewish leaders] were at the [gravesite of the] Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh on the 15th of Tammuz. The Husiatiner Rebbe (Rabbi Yisrael Friedman zt"l) saw the Name of Hashem (the Tetragrammaton); he said, "I see the Name of Hashem." He suddenly saw the Name of Hashem in the heavens above the tziyun (gravesite). He said, "The Name of Hashem [is here], so there will be a miracle!" And everyone had prepared poison; the Rebbetzin tells of her mother that they prepared poison. People did not want to fall into German captivity, as the Germans abused all the Jews. During World War II, it was known that they burned everyone alive and cut them into pieces; they were cannibals. So they prepared poison and prepared ropes for hanging. They prepared everything; everything was literally here. Anyone you talk to from 60 years ago [will tell you] they prepared hanging ropes here, and poison, and all sorts of things. They knew it was a matter of a day or two.

All the books recount the terrible weeping that took place; all of Jerusalem wept with terrible cries, cries that are impossible to describe. Like the Jews in Europe who knew, "We are going to the furnaces," they wept with shouts and roars. The Husiatiner Rebbe said, "I saw the Name of Hashem, there is nothing to worry about!" And on Shabbat morning, exactly on Shabbat, the Germans arrived, traveling in jeeps. The British had already abandoned the entire area; the British had already left everything, leaving only a few lone soldiers to be taken captive for appearance's sake, for the sake of the world. They put the entire British army on ships so they wouldn't fall into German captivity.

And they—the Germans—arrived with jeeps; they used to travel with motorcycles. They would enter Bucharest and Budapest riding motorcycles. In Budapest specifically, they traveled with motorcycles and jeeps. Some hundred thousand soldiers traveled with jeeps. But they didn't take into account how long the desert is. They traveled on roads in the desert, in sandstorms, in the blazing sun; they quickly drank their water. Their water ran out; they had already gone about six hours without water. They felt that in another minute they would die, it was over. The sun was scorching in Tammuz—this was Shabbat. The Yahrtzeit (anniversary of passing) was the 15th, which was Tuesday. So the 19th [of the month] falls on Shabbat. And they are traveling on Shabbat, and in another moment they are all going to die. Suddenly they see a huge pipe carrying water. They shot the pipe and drank the water. Everyone got pains, terrible pains; they began to faint from the intensity of the pain. They screamed and writhed. Suddenly the guard, those on lookout—the British—saw all the Germans, all hundred thousand Germans, rolling around with screams of pain. Immediately they brought many ropes and tied them all up; they tied that entire battalion, the entire division, with ropes, and they couldn't move. It turned out that it was a new pipe, and in a new pipe, they run sewage water; they want to check if the welding was okay and everything. Or they run seawater, or sewage. That was exactly the test of the pipe. That's why they saw a huge water pipe, but it was only that—before they flowed fresh water, it was sewage and seawater that they flowed there. They drank the water and everyone began to contort with terrible stomach pains, to contort and writhe in pain. And then they tied them up. An American officer tells this story; he calls it "The Miracle of the Water Pipe." This stopped the German army so that it could not reach the Land of Israel. In the meantime, more and more reinforcements arrived. The Germans heard this, so they already pulled back their army, and thus the Land of Israel was saved!