High alert in the north.
Ground invasion in Gaza.
Continued threats from Yemen.
A hot mess all over Judea and Samaria.
Antisemitism raging all over the world.
Nothing I write will change the facts on the ground.
It’s scary out here.
In the words of Don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier, in the film Fury,
“Ideals are peaceful. History is violent.”
And.
We are born to survive.
We do what we must to move through this time.
We pray. We help. We cry. We prepare. We support.
We fight.
We come together.
We share our food.
Share our strength.
We keep moving forward.
What follows are some messages that gave me strength and inspiration this week.
May we continue to lift each other and be lights for each other and for the world.
Shabbat shalom friends.
The following was written by Yaki Sagi, translated by Chaya Serraf.
What kind of country is Israel?
Perhaps the world should know this too. How five minutes into a walk in the public park an elderly woman will pass in front of you, her face shining with some age-old knowledge that seems to be reserved only for her.
She will say to you “Shalom!”, you will answer her while nodding your head, “Shalom, Shalom”.
She will smile, “We came here from Kibbutz Nirim, don’t ask, don’t ask, and who is this?”
“This is my little one, Emmanuel.”
She’d turn to him and say: “Emmanuel, Emmanuel, oy you are so cute”She will lay her hand on him, caress his cheek (we said: Israel), he would laugh.
Suddenly, she will straighten up and look you straight in the eyes, “And now you tell me how you are.”
“How am I??
You’re the one who came from there and ends up asking me how I am…I’m sad, listen, I want to hold your hand, and this is my wife, get to know her.
”She will hug your wife, immediately they will embrace each other, and stand in that embrace like a grandmother and her granddaughter, it moves me, I hug her too.
Tearfully, she tells me, I, who will be 43 in December,
“Don’t cry boy, what’s wrong with you? Don’t cry, we will rebuild everything, don’t you understand?We will rebuild everything, from scratch, it won’t work for them, it never worked, so smile, always smile.”
The following words are from of Tali Adler from Oct 31.
Avraham instituted [the morning prayer] shacharit, as it says “And Abraham rose early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord” (Genesis 19:27), and standing means nothing other than prayer.”
But I know that angels told Avraham and Sarah that they would have their long-awaited son less than a day before Avraham saw a city go up in flames, and with it (as far as he knew) all hope for the survival of his nephew, who he loved like his own child.And I don’t know what Avraham was thinking in that moment, and I don’t know how the human heart can be big enough to hold all of that at once.All I know is that Avraham stood and prayed.Blessed are you who releases the bound | ברוך מתיר אסורים
Blessed are you the True Judge | ברוך דיין האמת
Give praise to Gd for He is Great | הודו לה כי טוב
Gd please save us | אנא ה הושיעה נא
Jewish advocacy: Great “Wake Up Angelina Jolie” post by Noa Tishbi.