A Modern Day Bilaam Story: How a Russian Ba'al Teshuvah Nearly Destroyed the State of Israel and the Power of Yom Kippur Tefila

The story of Balak and Bilaam is a paradigm for how Hashem protects the Jewish people without them even being aware of the danger that lurks. It's a little early in the year to discuss parshas Balak, but for anyone who read the story of Leonid Tikochinsky in this week's Mishpacha magazine, the connection is clear.

Briefly, before ultimately returning to Judasim and making aliyah, Mr. Tikochinsky was an ardent Communist who rose within the Russian naval service to the position of commander of a Soviet nuclear submarine. And it so happens that during the Yom Kippur War, he was directed to position his sub off the coast of Israel, and await an order to fire nuclear missles that would inevitably have killed millions of Jews and destroyed the Jewish state. While, at the time, Tikochinsky knew he was a Jew, he had been so brainwashed by Soviet propoganda that he says now he would not have hesitated to fire had the order arrived, or even given a second thought to slaughtering millions of his brethren. Of course, B"H, the order never came.