We're Special

 

My middle child is back in the army stationed near Kissufim, one of the villages that was overrun and nearly destroyed by Arab terrorists on Simchat Torah last year. Friday he sent out this translated message on our family group: Anyone who needs challahs, cakes, bags of snacks, drinks, or toothpaste is happily invited to come here. The amount of donations doesn’t stop.

How heartwarming to read that even after 405 days of war, our soldiers are not being forgotten. What is even more heartwarming is that since many of the residents of Kissufim and other nearby towns have not yet returned home, most of those donations came from places as far as 60-80 miles away.

Of course, we’re a country full of Jewish mothers who kvell to feed our children in uniform. If only a chocolate chip cookie could win the war, we would have had total victory months ago.

On another note, that same son informed me that his unit enabled the transfer of truckload after truckload full of flour to Gaza last week. The transfer was supervised by both European and American observers. Is any other country in the world expected to feed its enemy? I don’t think so. Apparently the world knows that the Jewish People are special.

Lala Land

 Yesterday I took a break from reality and strolled along the Mediterranean beach for a couple of hours. It was so peaceful and serene, except for the army helicopters on patrol flying overhead.

How relaxed I felt until the evening, when I saw that we lost six more precious soldiers. Such heart ache.

We do not want to be at war. We just want everyone to come home-Kfir Bibas, his family, and all the other hostages, all the evacuees whose homes are being targeted by missiles, the injured, and the soldiers. That can only happen once we win this war. We cannot give up because surrender will mean our annihilation. Anyone who does not understand is living in Lala Land. I'd like to live there too but I can't.

The United Nations

 

When I was almost nine years old, my parents and I took a vacation to the east coast. While there we visited the United Nations and I was totally enchanted. How wonderful for all the nations of the world to get along. That enchantment motivated me a few years later when my cousin and I decided to go treat-or-treating on Halloween, not for candy, but for UNICEF. One of the first houses we approached had a huge flagpole in the middle of the front yard and an American flag hung from it daily. We were expecting a nice donation from the owner and were totally blindsided when he gruffly refused to give us anything. To the children behind us he became more affable. “I give the American way,” he announced as he handed them treats.

That was close to sixty years ago and through the years as the UN passed numerous anti-Israel resolutions, I came to understand that gruff neighbor more and more. An organization that enchanted a young child has become a bastion of antisemitism. The crowning insult was when their employees participated in the October 7^th massacre.

Now that UNRWA and other UN organizations are nominated for the Noble Peace Prize I imagine my gruff neighbor is turning over in his grave. As for me, well, I’m horrified, but then the world seems to have lost its moral compass.

As I write this, we’re less than thirty-six hours until the beginning of Yom Kippur, our day of atonement. Let’s do good deeds, give generous donations, repent, and pray with all our heart for the Almighty to nullify His harsh decrees and bring the world back to sanity.  

More Than Eleven Months

 

More than eleven months of lighting an extra candle for the hostages every Shabbat eve. More than eleven months of leaving our phones one over Shabbat according to security instructions. More than eleven months of reciting Avinu Malkanu day in and day out, even on Shabbat. More than eleven months of preparing cakes and other goodies for our soldiers and their families More than eleven months of war.

Soon my sons will be going back to active duty. I am no different than thousands of other mothers. We’re concerned for all the soldiers, but it becomes sharper when our children are fighting for our very survival.

In less than two weeks we will begin a new year. What will it hold? Will HaShem answer our pleas for true peace and the return home of all? Could this be the year of true redemption? It’s in His hands but we have to help Him.

Shabbat shalom

True Peace

 

I don’t think there is one Israeli who doesn’t long, pray or plead for every single hostage to return home safe in body and spirit. I believe that all of us were devastated by the murders of Ori Danino, Alexander Lobanov Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, and Almog Sarusi, hy’d. In our eagerness to bring them all home, some of us forget it is Hamas who is the real villain.

Last week my daughter told my husband how to make a good fish dinner. She illustrated the recipe by showing him pictures of Avinatan Ohr playing chef on the camping trip she, her husband, and other friends from Shilo had last summer, before he was kidnapped. How I want them  to be able to go out to nature with him again! But not at any price!

In 2011 Israel released over a thousand terrorists in exchange for Gilad Shalit. How many of those terrorists came across the border on October 7 to murder, maim, and rape? How had the Shalit deal encouraged them to kidnap as many as possible?

In 2005 Israel made a bid for peace by the Disengagement. Thousands of Jews were expelled from their homes and Gush Katif was turned over to the Arabs who in turn elected Hamas to run Gaza. Since then, there has been ongoing terror, shelling, and rockets on Israel from that territory. There were wars: Cast Lead in 2008, Protective Edge in 2014, and Wall Guardian in 2021. My son-in-law was injured in Protective Edge. How many soldiers were killed and injured? How many civilians?

Now we’re at war again. I don’t want this one to end with some flimsy cease-fire like the others. I don’t want to be attacked again. I don’t want to lose any more of our youth on the battlefield. I don’t want to bury more victims murdered in the name of Allah Akbar. I want peace.

Yes, our government and army were sleeping on the job last year. Yes, we need new leadership. However, fighting among ourselves will not bring the hostages home. Rather it emboldens our enemies.

As horrendous as Simchat Torah attacks were there was one comfort and that was the unity we had. I beg that all of us, secular or religious, left or right, sabra or immigrant all look at each other and remember we’re one family. Let’s work together to have a true peace, a lasting peace.

My Thoughts of the 303rd Day of War

Today, I am wearing blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag. Last week, Tvika Mor, the father of Eitan Mor who is being held hostage in Gaza, requested that the public do so on September 1st, the day most of our children return to school after summer vacation. He believed doing so would give moral support and show solidarity with the families of the hostages, the families of the fallen and injured, the evacuated families and all of Israel. How could I ignore such a selfless suggestion from a suffering parent?

Today, my eyes are swollen. Although, over Shabbat two major terror attacks were miraculously thwarted, this morning I learned that the dead bodies of six of our hostages had been found and a terror attack near Hevron has left three more murdered.

Today, despite all this, I have hope. When I left my house, I saw my village Shilo was full of yellow balloons with this caption. Returning Happily to School and Waiting For Your Arrival*. Below the words is a picture of Avinatan Ohr. How we wait for his return.

Today, I attended the opening ceremony for my granddaughter’s entry into first grade. Over 120 girls, dressed in blue and white, are starting school here. When my youngest daughter began first grade there were barely thirty girls. We have grown and grown and continue to do so.

Today, the principal told the girls that it might be hard for their mothers to send them off to school, but thousands of years ago a mother named Yocheved put her baby boy into a basket in the river trying to save him. That baby was none other than Moses in whose merit the Jewish people received the Torah. Throughout the centuries villains have tried to destroy the Jewish people, and none have succeeded. The Torah has kept us alive as we keep the Torah.

Today, more than ever, I know the Jewish People Live. Am Yisroel Chai.

*loosely translated

Hope

 

I didn’t have a clue that another hostage was rescued today until I received a message from a friend this afternoon. Immediately I turned to the news and discovered that Quad Farhan al Qadi, an Israeli Bedouin and a father to eleven, was finally free. My first reaction, I have to admit, was why couldn’t it have been Avinatan Ohr. In fact, I turned to my daughter who was here visiting asking her how she felt about the released hostage being someone besides a friend she’d grown up with. “I’m not G-d” was her response. In other words, we have no idea how He runs the world and decides who should be released and when. With that said, I had a new emotion, one of hope. Quad Farhan al Qadi is still alive; surely other hostages are as well. Looking again at the news I viewed this clip of Quad Farhan al Qadi’s family speeding through the hospital’s grounds anxious, after 325 days, to see their loved one once again. So touching and then my emotion was one of gratitude. Please, HaShem, bring them all home!

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