Part 1 was the Iranian missile strike five months ago. And last night we had the encore.
Last evening I left my house with my bubbe cart, walking to the mercaz to get all the fruit and vegetables we would need for Rosh Hashanah, which, this year, is the rare-in-Israel Three Day Yontif (I mentioned to someone at work yesterday that, although I miss very few things from life in the US, when we have three-day holidays, I REALLY miss my second freezer and second refrigerator).
Just at the end of our street, our family chat got messages from Penina, who was in Tel Aviv on her way home from work (she's a pre-intern at a small international law firm and really enjoying it). She said that there had been a terrorist attack in Yafo. But the news was really conflicting at that time with whether the attack was in the CITY of Yafo (which is essentially part of Tel Aviv--you might have even heard of it as "Tel Aviv/Yafo") or on Yafo STREET (in Jerusalem, which Penina and Menashe's apartment is off of. As in one building off of). We had news reports of each place. Menashe had just come in to their apartment and he felt that it couldn't be Jerusalem as things had been totally normal on Yafo street.
At 7:05, Penina sent this:
"Maybe I should just turn around?" I asked on the chat. "Everyone stay home" Penina responded. (I would like to thank you, Penina, for saving me last night. Not saving me physically, since we know that, THANK GD, no one was killed in Israel, but mentally because that was a brutal night and would have been more so had I been in some random stairwell in the mercaz. Not to mention I would have abandoned by bubbe cart and probably lost 200 nis worth of fruit and vegetables!).
I stopped at the apartment of a young couple on our street who are having a tough time financially and gave them some money to help with their Holiday preparations and came home. Not saying this to humble brag, just seriously sharing the concept that we learn from Rosh Hashanah that prayer, repentance and acts of charity avert harsh decrees.
And then.....While Shalom Shachne was talking with his Mom on the phone, the sirens started.
First our phones came through with an usual sound telling everyone to get in a protected space which made us wonder if we (okay, not really "we") should listen to the advice. "Who cares?? Let's go!!!! Bye, Ma--gotta go. Sirens here" (Sorry, Ma, that must have been scary to hear).
We took Percy into the mamad (which had had a problem with the metal shutters closing that my amazing Shalom Shachne had just fixed mere hours before) and then, oh my goodness.....
The sirens on my phone
The sirens on his phone
The sirens outside
The BOOMS. We should be old hat at this after almost a year, but this was the worst we have ever heard.
And more sirens coming, coming, coming.
I had heard people question: If we're supposed to stay in the safe room ten minutes after a missile siren, what would happen if a second missile came in during that time--would there be a second siren or not?I now have the answer: YES, there will be another siren because we had, I think, three almost in direct sequence.
I can't even imagine how stressful it was for Penina being in the protected room of the train station with all the other passengers and hearing EVERYONE'S phone alerts going off at the same time (I just about jumped out of my skin with the two phones we had in the mamad with us).
Ilana was in the safe room at seminary. She was supposed to come home in the evening and then seminary announced that girls could only leave if they got a ride, no public transportation. Thank Gd she and I weren't on the road driving. Our friend, Eitan, who just came to yeshiva in the Old City a few weeks ago, was at his school, thankfully. Our friend Menachem who was in the grocery store in the mercaz went in the safe room there and they had a maariv minyan for evening prayers :). At the mall, there was singing in the safe room. Cousin Coby was on a bus from Jerusalem and, poor guy, had to twice get out and lie on the side of the road. And the woman who did evening shift at work had to stop three times on her way home to lie on the side of the road (thank you, Hashem, for giving me day shift yesterday). She said it looked just like this video that someone else in the city posted:
WARNING: you will hear sirens in this video: If you don't see if here, it's also posted on Youtube here: https://youtube.com/shorts/
I'm crying writing this.
It is a total and complete miracle that people were not seriously injured or killed; thank you, Hashem.
It was SO incredibly hard to not be together. During every other siren we've had we were either all together, or I was at work and the rest of the family was here together. And worrying about Penina and how she would get home was brutal. I felt like Mrs. Weasley in Harry Potter, where the clock in their house points to family member's location and, during the war, all of the clock hands are pointed to "Mortal Peril".
Shalom Shachne and I said tehilim and learned some of hilchos Rosh Hashanah (thanks to Rabbi Shalom Andy Shulman for sending that out earlier in the day). I discovered that it really DOES work to lie down and put one's feet up when you're feeling faint (I didn't actually think I would faint, but I was definitely feeling lightheaded). I had a routine: take some Rescue Remedy (can I just say again that that stuff works wonders?!), read some tehilim, check my phone for the family chat, and repeat. Again and again and again for an hour.
This was perhaps the scariest thing I've ever lived through, because there was no saying when it would end and/or how it would end......Were they taking a coffee break and they would start up again? Later that night, a car door slammed outside and I practically screamed, "WHATWASTHAT?!"
There is a thought that we should all include a new siman at our Rosh Hashanah dinners tonight: a burnt food, so that Hashem should "burn up" our enemies and as a reminder of all the miracles we witnessed last night.
I will be offline until Saturday night, Israel time. Wishing us all a new year of PEACE, health, happiness, love and financial ease.
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