Remembrance Day

As I opened my prayer book this morning I heard the beep from my phone. Only seven a.m. and already my daughter was messaging. Except it wasn’t a message, rather a clip, a clip for Remembrance Day, a clip about her husband’s officer who’d been killed in Operation Protective Edge almost five years ago. I didn’t want to look at it.

This week’s been hard. The weather’s been thick and heavy and the news, well the news was far heavier than the weather could ever be. I’ve lost count of the rockets shot at Israel from Hamas or the number of times the sirens sounded in the south spreading terror in their wake or the sum of those injured whose lives will never be quite the same. I know, however, how many precious souls were lost. Four: Moshe Agadi, Moshe Feder, Ziad Alhamamda, and Pinchas Menachem Pshevesman. May their families be comforted and HaShem avenge their blood.

Tonight will begin Remembrance Day, when we remember those killed while protecting us and those murdered in terror attacks. Not that we need a special day to remember; we need a day to honor them.

Following Remembrance Day will be Independence Day and the mood of the country will change radically. The flags will be raised from half-mast, prayers of thanksgiving will be chanted, there will be singing, dancing, barbeques, hikes, and all sorts of celebrations. Still, the shadow of loss will be in the background.

It has been said no country can have an Independence Day without a Remembrance Day. For many nations their stories of battles for independence are long gone. For us, in Israel, they are on-going.

Is it possible to cope with such a contrast? How can we be possibly be the eleventh happiest country in the world*? Will our neighbors ever allow us to have true peace?

For me, it’s my faith that lets me cope and stay happy and gives me confidence that some day we will have true peace. Tomorrow I will gather my courage, and some tissues, and at the time the siren sounds look at the clip my daughter sent me. I owe it to my son-in-law, to all the soldiers, and, most of all, to myself.

*according to the Gallup poll