Thursday: My wife and I just came back from a trip along with a representative of the Jewish Agency (Danyelle Neuman) to give chizuk, support, to the survivors of Kfar Azza, a Kibbutz on the border of Gaza. What was a “little slice of heaven” was unfortunately on the border of Gaza. It’s now a smoking ruin, the stench of death ever present.
We met up with Yaacov HaGoel, Chairman of the World Zionist Organization at a hotel in Shefayim, a small town north of Tel Aviv. It was like one big Shiva House, a house of mourning. People milling about, sobbing on each other’s shoulders. They had all lost family, friends. The stories are tragic beyond description, slaughtered babies, whole families shot, burned, tortured.
I spoke to a man who had lost his son, one of fifteen in the Kibbutz militia, whose job was to hold out in case of an attack for about a half hour until the IDF came. They didn’t come, and the militia didn’t have adequate weapons. Fifteen to hold out against more than 150 terrorists that came in from four locations. His son led the unit, shot several terrorists and then himself was shot. He called his wife, “Racheli, I’ve been shot.” “Move” she said to him, “Move!” “I can’t move Racheli.” “I’m by the olive tree we used to sit under.” Even though wounded, he covered with rapid fire the four surviving members of his team until they could retreat. And there he perished.
I have no words! These are our people, our babies slaughtered, the hostages taken, our hostages. HaShem Yerachaim, May HaShem have mercy!
I’m sharing this for only one reason. Kol Yisroel aravim zeh l’zeh, all Israel are guarantors one to the other. We, the family of Israel, are a single body with many moving parts. As long as the spirit of Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaacov courses through our veins, as long as we believe in the morality introduced to the world by the Torah and carried as a banner by the Jewish People throughout history, then each of us is the bearer of this mission and jointly responsible.
There are forces of evil ever present, enemies of the good, purveyors of hate, with a program of violence and death. They have fought us since we accepted our mission at Sinai. They will fight us until the hatred that is in men’s souls is vanquished by the goodness that our Torah represents.
That day may be a long way off. Until then, we must stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel, we must grieve our losses, support the widow and the orphan and open our hearts and pocket books to the real needs of equipping our soldiers and rebuilding lives and communities.
One may ask, as we have asked in every tragedy, “Where was God?” When Moshe Rebbeinu asked the question he was harshly told not to ask lest HaShem turn the world back into “Toho va voho,” the chaos of the world’s beginning. If Moshe couldn’t get an answer, who am I to expect one?
Yet, I believe with perfect faith that HaShem is a God of Mercy; that he surely picked up this young man from Kibbutz Azza and all the other fallen heroes, precious souls, and with His own Hands carried them to his Cesei HaCavod, to his throne of honor, to be beside Him for all eternity.
I believe that the price of our freedom, the free will that we humans have with which to do good on this earth, which surely is our mission, must be balanced by our ability to do evil in equal and opposite measure. Otherwise, we have no choice at all.
We are put here on this earth to stand for that morality that is the heart of the Torah, to live it in our daily lives and by doing so be a light unto the nations.
So I daven, pray, for my soldiers on the front lines, waiting to enter that hell hole that is Gaza, I join them as they clasp arms around each other and dance, and I lift up my voice with them to sing… “Me, sh’maamin, lo mifhad.” He who believes is not afraid.
If we all for one moment will open our hearts and join them, if we clasp arms one with another as brothers and sisters, children of one family, partners with HaShem, I promise you the miracles will come.
The Long Journey Home, Chapter 10: War
