11 Weeks of War

 

This morning there are eight pictures of fallen soldiers. Two are/were my son-in-law’s friends. Blessed is the True Judge…

Thursday my son-in-law received a short leave, and my daughter and grandchildren were able to drive to one of the devastated villages near the Gaza border and spend some time with him. How uplifting was seeing the clip of him taking them for a ride in his jeep. How my heart sang to see them together.

Friday my daughter’s voice was still full of happiness as she spoke about their short time together. She told me the kids had played on the playground in the village, probably the first children to play there since October 7^th. Echoes of Zecharia’s (8, 4-5) prophecy went through our minds. Once again old men and women will sit in the squares of Jerusalem. In old age a man will lean on the staff in his hand, and the city squares will be full and alive with young boys and girls playing in her open squares. That gave us a feeling of hopefulness as we went into Shabbat.

Shabbat is an island of time during which we do not look at the news. As the sun goes down on Saturday, though, the anxiety returns. What bad news will be waiting for us?

Several hours later after Havdalah the phone rang. My daughter began the conversation saying her husband is okay but... That beginning never heralds good news and, indeed, what she told us was quite distressing.

Two vehicles had been traveling inside Gaza, her husband in the first driving his officer, the second with three soldiers. That second one ran over a landmine. Two of the soldiers were killed, the third seriously injured. My son-in-law stayed in control and did what he needed to do. Now he’ll need to go to the funerals and deal with his loss and grief. My daughter needs to be supportive. We have to support her.

None of us asked for this war. Now that it is upon us, we are fighting with all our might. We are fighting it for our survival. Every soldier we lose is a whole world and day after day worlds are crumbling.  Still, we will stay strong to fight and pray for the return of all our captives, and all our soldiers, and all our injured.

Am Yisroel Chai!

No one will destroy us!