When you speak with Nissim Keinan about nissim (miracles), the miracle takes on additional significance. Like his name, he is someone accustomed to miracles due to his position as a reporter for Kol Yisrael in the south of Israel. He has been exposed to miracles daily, hourly.

“Today you can hear it on all the channels. Instead of saying ‘Luckily, nobody was hurt,’ they say, ‘Miraculously, nobody was hurt.’  This is a serious change for the media which affects the listeners. That is a spiritual miracle no less than the physical miracles.” It’s not ‘luckily’ or ‘it happened,’ it’s simply a miracle.”

During Israel’s most recent war against Hamas, he saw the miracles regularly.

 “Thursday morning, the last day of the war, a relatively new rocket [R60] landed on a house in Ashkelon without any warning siren. It was aimed at Haifa, but something went awry and it landed a lot closer than expected, on a house in Ashkelon.

“The father heard the whistling sound of the rocket when he got up for morning prayers. He immediately woke up his wife and ran with her to the children’s bedroom to take them to the fortified room. As they were on the stairs on their way to that room, the rocket exploded in their bedroom! That is a tremendous miracle considering that the damage from a rocket like that is enormous. There were 21 lightly injured people and surrounding damage for a radius of 500 meters in every direction. The rocket itself was a size the likes of which we had not seen until now, a circumference of 345 millimeters with a warhead that is stronger than the usual, nearly forty kilos of explosive material, and the parents and children were not at all injured; they got out without a scratch.

“I went to the house and it says on the aquarium: Ma Rabu Maasecha Hashem (how great are Your deeds, Hashem). Everything exploded except for the aquarium with that sign. That is one big, open miracle.

 “There was a direct hit in one of the settlements in Tzohar, in a house where they had a shelter. The rocket fell into the shelter when the cement was still wet and the cement absorbed the force of the blow. As for the people, they were eating lunch in the house but nothing happened to them. It’s literally the hand of G-d.

“Another miracle occurred in Netivot. There is a private daycare in one of the houses consisting of five children. Despite the war, the parents continued to bring their children every day to the babysitter. One day, they didn’t come, without any particular reason. And that day, a rocket landed in the yard of the house which caused a lot of damage. Afterward, they made a big thanksgiving meal for the miracle.

“Another story that I got from a reliable source: Two big rockets of the Fajr type were shot in the direction of Tel Aviv. One rocket was shot down and the other they didn’t manage to intercept. Calculations show that it was intended to land in the area of the Azrieli towers. On the way, for some reason, it slowly veered toward the sea and in the end it landed north of Tel Aviv in a biking area.

Keinan’s stories pour forth readily, including miracles he personally experienced. During the last three operations and even before that, in Gush Katif, many mortars landed near him.

“I went through a lot. We try to publicize the miracles. I think it’s a big mitzvah. It’s a minimum expression of gratitude.

“A miracle happened to me at the end of Operation Pillar of Cloud, and it happened on live broadcast. I was asked to comment on Hamas because of the impending ceasefire. I said I don’t believe in their ceasefires. As I spoke, they shot a volley of sixteen rockets toward Beersheba. I was on my way to the studio and saw an interception, another interception and another. I reported about them and suddenly I and Benny Teitelbaum, who was in the studio in Jerusalem on live broadcast, heard a mighty boom. A rocket exploded twenty meters away from me. What stopped it was the neighbor’s shelter.

“The first thing I did, on live broadcast, was to run to the neighbors to save the woman and three children. I found them under the steps and thank G-d, they were uninjured. Obviously, a broadcast like that made waves throughout the country. I remember the date; it was November 21, 2012.

“That’s not a miracle? What is a space of twenty meters?” concludes Keinan. Despite the danger in reporting from the field, his personal confidence is unshaken.

“Since Pillar of Cloud, I constantly say Chapter 91 of Psalms, ‘He who dwells in the covert of the Most High will lodge in the shadow of the Almighty … A thousand will be stationed at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it will not approach you …’

“Interestingly, 91 – Tzaddik Alef – are the initials of Tzeva Adom. When there is a Tzeva Adom (red alert), you should know, ‘It will not approach you.’”