War

I can't quite get my head around the fact that my last post was a link to watch Penina and Menashe's wedding and here we are, exactly a month later on the Jewish calendar, and we've been through the wedding, Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days, Yom Kppur, the beginning of Sukkot and Chol HaMoed and then came back to earth with a giant, horrific siren blare on Shabbat/Simchat Torah announcing incoming rockets. I'm not going to rehash the news, but I will say that I am horrified by the complete inhumanity and barbarism displayed by Hamas in kidnapping women, children, THE ELDERLY (inlcuding a Holocaust surivor taken in her wheelchair). As Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, this "should be something that revolts the entire world". 

I will also share some shocking statistics with you, like this from the American Jewish Congress, shared by my niece Megan:

and this from the World Jewish Congress via cousin Jillian:

To back up to Shabbat/Simchat Torah/Saturday: I had davened at the sunrise minyan from 6:15-8:45 and, athough we could hear a lot of "boom boom" happening, everything was calm (hey, no sirens and not like we were at war [then]). I was out walking Percy around 9 when those background booms turned into an "incoming rocket" siren. Percy stopped in his tracks. I did too. Then picked him up and ran like heck home reminding myself the whole time, "I'm a runner. I can do this. I've got 60 seconds to get in the safe room". Mentally, though, that run of one block and up one flight of stairs felt like one of those nightmares where you're running and get nowhere.... 

We were in the safe room ("mamad") six times that day.....Re. the safe room: it has reinforced windows and a reinforced door. When the siren sounds it's everyone in until the siren stops plus ten minutes. I keep a box with water and cups, a chocolate bar (good to keep away emotional Dementors) and two sifrei tehilim in there. Because it's also the guest room, we have beds, pillows and books too :). No air conditioning (I have heard it's illegal in a safe room so that there are no air ducts). Because Menashe and Penina were staying in there, the fan and Shabbat light were on (our friends who did not have guests sat in their hot, dark room. Sounds much less pleasant.....). Shalom Shachne said he heard that two of the sirens were actually in Gimel, across the valley from our house and we didn't really need to go into the mamad and extra points for great hearing. Since Gimel really isn't all that far (look at the photo at the top of this page. This is the view from our living room and that's Gimel, right across the valley from us). 

Shabbat was a pretty surreal day for me. Living in a religious city, there are usually a few cars passing through on Shabbat or holidays, but no significant number. This day was a big exception. Not just lots of people passing through, but lots of men getting in their cars and leaving (from what we heard, the Army keeps lists of who will answer their phone on Shabbat and who won't. They send someone around to those who don't use their phones and they get a knock on the door and orders to pack up and go). Walking Percy in the afternoon (while staying close to home and wearing sneakers rather than nice shoes [#OnceBurnedTwiceShy] I saw a family on the next street walking two of their fatigue-wearing sons to their car. It was so impressive to see their strength and grace under such incredible pressure. And then this very unusual conversation about where they could gas up the car on Shabbat because nothing is open here on Shabbat..... 

 I'm going to try to focus on the humanity, love and caring of the average citizen here. I'm going to do my best to fill my little section of the world with "ahavat chinam" (baseless love) to counter the "sinat chinam" (baseless hate) of our enemies. Here's what's I see: Although Israel's army is a well-prepared one, no one expected 400,000 reserve troops to be called up at the same time and the Army does not seem like it was prepared to suddenly feed all the reserve troops. So there have been MANY events gathering food for the soldiers (loved this video from Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv). Kids in our neighborhood helped fill a local charity organization's entire ambulance with food, snacks and supportive signs and notes for soldiers. We did our part by purchasing protein bars (small and good energy for the soldiers), cakes and Chana made cookies that we dropped off. Tomorrow night we're making dinner for a family of ten that has moved from the South into a neighbor's house. 

Due to the timing of Hamas's attack, the soldiers were not prepared in many ways: a large number of them were away for the holiday and had literally nothing with them aside from Shabbat clothes and a pair of pajamas. We know many people who have taken it upon themselves to buy underwear and undershirts, phone chargers, flashlights, anything the soldiers need along with food. A young friend of mine raised 1200 nis (about $400) in two hours just by posting on her Whatsapp status that she had a contact who would take the supplies to his Army unit if she was able to quickly buy things before he left. Those not in the Army are working hard to fill in the societal gaps: there are lists going around for volunteers to take down Sukkot for families suddenly without a man at home, and also lists of people who will babysit and help out for these suddenly single-parent families.

The last two nights have been loud with booms throughout the night but no sirens.  I don't think anyone is sleeping particularly well (the windows even shake sometimes). There are weird emotional comparisons to Covid lockdowns (as you may recall, Israel did it first and a lot worse than pretty much anywhere else, such as being forbidden to go anywhere more than 100 meters from the house, which meant that taking the trash out was an illegal activity for us). Ilana's school announced that some classes would be by telephone today. Sigh.

Chana was supposed to leave Sunday but her flight was canceled. She's still working on when and how she'll get back to New York.

I ask you to join me in praying for peace and security in our beautiful country.