October 7 anniversary

 

The days surrounding October 7 were full of reports like this:

Local artist Deena Ackerman had an art display at the city's cultural center ready for the October 7 memorial event. She has made watercolor paintings (that she gave to the families) of each of our city's war fatalities: 4 people murdered at the Nova festival, 17 soldiers who fell in battle and 10 people killed when an Iranian missile made a direct hit in our city:

(If the video doesn't work, you can click here to see it)

(Hebrew translation) Beit Shemesh Remembers

May their memory be for a blessing

In memory of those who fell and were murdered since the 7 of October

Lastly, I've shared rather a lot about former hostage Omer Shem-Tov, since I heard his mother speak about six months after October 7. Here is an interview with him in Mishpacha Magazine, about the spiritual aspects of his over 16 months of captivity, including 50 days in a totally dark cell that was so small he couldn't stand up in it: https://mishpacha.com/free-to-surrender/

Over Sukkot, we had lunch with friends in their sukkah. Their parents were visiting from the US and the talk turned to October 7. As we reminsced, his mom said, "and then you called to tell us you were okay". And our friend summed up the last three years perfectly by saying, "We were fine. But we weren't okay".