Chaim is speaking after sunset, so its dark and viewers can barely see him. He thanks everyone who has given and/or prayed for the Aliyah Return Center so that it can provide assistance to all the internally displaced Israeli refugees and many other people who need help amidst the current crisis.
He adds that he and his comrades have been training hard and that there’s a lot of enemies arrayed against Israel, beyond Hamas in Gaza. But he explains that it’s not just a physical, kinetic conflict, it’s a spiritual battle.
Chaim reminds us of the events described in Daniel chapter 10:1-14;
In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel (who was called Belteshazzar). Its message was true and it concerned a great war. The understanding of the message came to him in a vision. At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.
On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.
I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; those who were with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground.
A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. He said, “Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you.” And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling.
Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.”
He also reminds us of the example of Esther, who was afraid to speak to her husband, the king, regarding Haman’s evil plot against the Jewish People. But Mordechi reminded her in Esther 4:13-15;
Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
In the case of both Daniel and Esther, these Jewish heroes fasted and prayed, and Esther also asked her friends and supporters to fast and pray with her, to seek the Lord and ask for His protection and deliverance.
Chaim says that now is the time when everyone must fast and pray and humble themselves and then go before the King, meaning God, and ask for His protection and deliverance.
