This week.....

 This week marks eleven months since the start of the war. This week, the families of the 1200 people murdered by Hamas on October 7 stop saying kaddish.....

How many times can our hearts break in eleven months?

Hersh Goldberg-Polin

I was speaking with a relative recently and was kind stunned that they didn't know the names/stories of any of the hostages. "Not even Hersh Goldberg-Polin???" I asked. Nope, not even. So I started writing this blog post. There are at least two people on this list who know Hersh/his family personally. Please feel free to PM me if there's something I should add in here, or put it in the comments section below.

Hersh is a 23 year-old American-Israeli dual citizen. His parents were both born and raised in Chicago, and he made aliyah from Los Angeles when he was seven. He was at the Nova music festival on October 7, and was taken captive after he, his friend Aner Shapira, and a large group of other festival-goers hid in a small roadside bomb shelter. Hamas terrorists lobbed hand grenades into the shelter. Aner threw back seven before the eighth one killed him.....Hersh was taken captive with the lower half of his (dominant) left arm blown off.....At the end of April, Hamas released a video of Hersh, showing that, b''H, he was, as of that time, still alive.

Hersh's parents have gone on a worldwide tour to raise awareness about Hersh and all the hostages. As they say, they will talk with anyone to raise awareness. They have met with the Pope and President Biden, and his mother was chosen as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2024. They spoke at the Democratic National Convention last week, saying, "At this moment, 109 treasured human beings are being held by Hamas. They are Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists....Among the hostages are 8 American citizens. One of those hostages is our only son Hersh". If you haven't seen their speech, here it is (and, if you would like to see the equally moving speech by the parents of hostage Omer Neutra, who spoke at the RNC, here is a link to that:

Here's a good article in the Atlantic, talking about how his parents are making through each day. Hard to believe this interview took place on Day 200 and now we are past Day 300: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/05/hersh-goldberg-polin-israeli-hostage-family/678452/

"Free Hersh" graffiti (the Goldberg-Polins live in Jerusalem) is found pretty much all over Jerusalem, at leas the parts I go in (this is the side of a recycling container).

I was in Boston last week visiting my family and the Goldberg-Polins were actually on my flight home (I assume they spoke somewhere in Boston on Thursday after the DNC Wednesday night. Anyone know?). Seeing them in person was profoundly moving.....

At Ben Gurion airport, there is a display of signs along the walkway to passport control. This was the third time I've flown since the war started. It's heartbreaking to see the signs getting fuller and fuller with well-wishes and words of love and support each time. This was Hersh's sign in February:

And this is Hersh's sign now:

The  Jerusalem Post published a beautiful article in June about Hersh's friend Jeremiah Smith who, after being tutored in elementary school by Hersh's grandmother, lived with her from 7th grade through high school and went with her on every trip she took to Israel, including for Hersh's bar mitzvah. Hersh used to joke that Jeremiah was his "brother cousin uncle". Jeremiah now drives a truck with signs like "Chicagoan Kidnapped by Hamas" on it to raise awareness. 

Although not a fan of the "Bring Them Home Now" slogan, as it seems to put the onus on Israel rather than on Hamas to "Let My People Go", I fervently hope that, however it happens, Hersh and all of the hostages are soon home and starting to heal from their nightmare of, as of today, 323 days in captivity.

Tisha b'Av

 Monday nights starts Tisha b'Av. It's one of only two sundown-to-sundown fast days in Judaism (the other is Yom Kippur), and is the saddest day of the year. We observe all of the same customs as when someone close to us has died, except this time we are mourning a string of devastating events that happened over the course of Jewish history. A friend said to me today that we've all had days since October 7 where we just want to sit and cry, and here we are, being handed a day when the whole country, and Jews around the world, will sit and cry together.

It has been hypothesized that, if Iran is going to attack, they will (knowing enough about Jewish history) do it on Tisha b'Av (hopefully all that diplomacy that's been coming to them has helped get them off the ledge and they won't do anything). But there is tremendous spiritual power in a nation that, as one, is fasting. So if you normally don't fast on Tisha b'Av, please consider it this year. And if you already do fast, join me in crying for everything and everyone we have lost this year and pray for a future we've been looking forward to for thousands of years. 

I have signed up to watch the video put out by Aish HaTorah that includes interviews with our neighbor, Jen Airley, whose soldier son Binyamin, was killed in action in Gaza in November. Here is the trailer for "October 7: Voices of Pain, Hope and Heroism". Jen is the first person who speaks in the trailer.

I appreciate all the supportive messages received after my last post, and all the helpful advice of additional products to place in the mamad. I've spent the better part of 1.5 weeks stocking up on a few things (okay, a lot of things), pretty much every time I go to the store (which is a few times a week, since we live so near the mercaz). But finally even *I* reached my limit. On Thursday, while shopping for Shabbat, I reached for a can of mandarin oranges.

Were they an ingredient in anything on the menu? No. Has anything with canned mandarin oranges been on the menu at any time in the last year? Nah. Do I even like mandarin oranges? Actually, I do ;). But as I reached for the can, thinking "maybe I should get one of these for the mamad, I found myself just about laughing out loud, and, wow, was that cathartic. Since then, I've found my tension level to be WAY lower (b''H). (Of course, each day that passes helps even more than mandarin oranges).

To try to end on a less somber note, have a chuckle looking at this. Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, tried to be super scary on social media. I'd say it failed because responses to his post are still coming out (my fave: "He should eat a diet higher in fiber"):

and this (if cross-dressing Israelis don't bother you :)):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mYScv8jOTQ

What's in the mamad?

 

I'm still thinking about what I'd like to say in a longer post, but, for now, since headlines such as this are all over the news, I thought you might like to see a list of what we have in our mamad/safe room:

First off, we're fortunate to have two beds in there (mamad at work is standing-room-only)

We've added in:

12 liters of bottled water and cups

chocolate bars (to keep the dementors away, as any good Harry Potter fan knows)

rice cakes

tuna (not that we're such fans, but all the cool kids have tuna in their mamad.....)

chips/Doritos/Bamba 

fireproof lockbox with important papers and some cash

Rescue Remedy (kosher version. Not sure if the link I'm giving is, but it's possible to get, should you find yourself, y'know, staring down Iran)

dog food for Percy, a bowl for water, and a faux piddle pad I put together for him

multi charger x 2 (for the Android/iPhone split among us)

battery-powered flashlight x 2

two sifrei tehilim (so we can keep saying "the L-rd is my shepherd").

Pray for peace and permanent security for our beautiful, holy country!!

The Downs and Ups of Living in Israel

 Yesterday, in the late afternoon, I made a shiva visit to a family from our shul whose son, while fighting in the Army in Gaza last week, was hit by an anti-tank missile. Yonatan Greenblatt, hy''d, died on Shabbat. 

And then, a few hours later, I went to an engagement party for my friend's son (out of the Army until August, when he's back in Gaza. May Hashem protect him and all of our soldiers).

To everything there is a season.....

But in Israel the seasons seem to come a whole lot faster and stronger than they did in the US.

Guest Post by Our 3 Year-Old Friend

 

Avi, his 7 year-old sister Bella  (who has been walking to shul with me most weeks for the past few months) and their mom often join us for Shabbos lunch. Their dad/husband was called up for reserve duty on October 7 and has spent the vast majority of the last 9 months fighting for the safety of our country.....(SUCH a small country--he has his car with him and, when possible, he drives the few hours home. Having grown up on war stories where the brave soldier is going overseas on a plane or boat and won't see his family for months, if not years, this concept is incredible [and also terrifying, frankly, that the war front is easily drivable from my sleepy suburb]).

Last week, Bella brought her brother's little siddur to shul with her, so she could say the special prayer we say for the soldiers. When I saw Avi's "personal prayer" in the back, I got quite the lump in my throat. He prays that his father "could go to the Army and also be at home".....

Agro-Terrorism

I read two articles today that got me thinking far more in-depth than I had been about the agricultural issues resulting from October 7. I knew that fields and farm animals suffered severe damage. That vast swaths of crops were rotting because many farm workers had been called up into the military and a lot of foreign workers had gone home (there are still local- and regional postings almost every day looking for volunteers to pick crops). I certainly knew that food prices had gone up.

What I didn't realize is that it was all part of the evil plot Hamas carried out on October 7. Mishpacha magazine's excellent article "Bitter Fruits" quotes the head of an agricultural community in the affected region who says, "Agriculture wasn't just collateral damage, as the general narrative goes. It was a deliberate target". The area affected, the WSJ notes, "produces 70% of the country's vegetables, 20% of its fruit and 6% of its milk".

The Wall Street Journal discusses Kibbutz Alumim, just 2 miles over the Gaza border. Three chicken coops there were burned to the ground on October 7, but 300,000 more chickens died of thirst and hunger after terrorists destroyed the automated dispensers that gave water and food for five more chicken coops, and no humans were around to tend to the chickens by hand.

In Nachal Oz, where the Mishpacha interviewee lives, "all 40 irrigation control boxes were smashed and the terrorists went straight for the customized computer chips that regulate the entire system; every farm vehicle was either burned or taken into Gaza".

In a previous post here about "The Hostages You Might Not Have Heard About" I mentioned foreign workers like Bipin Joshi. Why would Hamas want to take him hostage? Yonoson Rosenblum (of whose work I am quite the fan) and Rachel Ginsberg of Mishpacha explain:"Because Israeli agriculture can't survive without foreign workers, the terrorists located, massacred and abducted foreign workers in order to neutralize this vital labor source.....When the first Israeli soldiers reached  [the barracks where Thai workers slept] they found Thai workers not just killed, but horribly mutilated. Those photos were subsequently sent to the king of Thailand, with the specific intent that he would order his subjects to return to Thailand". Which something like 85 percent of them have done....

I encourage you to read both pieces:

https://mishpacha.com/bitter-fruits/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hamas-agricultural-terrorism-oct-7-israel-food-supply-trying-to-break-the-community-e4d91a71?st=jtwkaauxhbgs4id&reflink=article_gmail_share

Click here if you would like to donate to the Save a Farm Fund from Keren HaShviis (mentioned in the Mishpacha article):

photo from Save a Farm Fund