By Rabbi Uriel Vigler
I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve been to Israel, but the trip I just returned from was unlike any other. This visit was not a pleasure trip or a tourist opportunity. It was a mission with the goal to show solidarity and provide as much assistance as possible.
We started at Kfar Aza—a town on the Gaza border that was hit one of the hardest. As much as I’d heard about the brutality and devastation, it was nothing compared to being there in person and hearing about it from those who lived through it. Our guide walked us through the attacks in horrifying detail, showing us exactly where the barbarick terrorists paraglided into Israel, where the fences were breached, how everything played out.
The homes in Kfar Aza have been left exactly as they were on October 7th—bloodied, burned, plundered, riddled with bullets. We could still smell the smoke.
We visited the site of the Nova music festival, which has become a makeshift memorial. We listened to the stories of the soldiers who were wounded there, saving as many lives as they could under heavy fire. We cried.
We went to Sderot, which has been hit by hundreds of missiles, and saw the police station that was completely overrun by terrorists on October 7. We heard first-hand accounts of those who witnessed the unbearable slaughter of our people.
We visited an airforce base where we witnessed a deeply emotional reunion between a soldier who was wounded in Gaza and the pilot who saved his life. It was impossible not to cry.
We went to the Western Wall, and prayed for our brave soldiers and for the return of the hostages. The pain is endless, the suffering unfathomable.
But at the same time, I met so many other Jews, who had come specifically to show their solidarity and support, all there to say, “We are one people and we care deeply. We share your pain. We’re here to help.”
The message from this trip is: These are our brothers and sisters, putting their lives on the line for all of us. Their suffering is our suffering. Now we say to Hashem: “Look how united your children are! We are “Belev Echad” — with one heart! It’s time to bring Moshiach and the Final Redemption. We have suffered enough.”
We must do everything we can to make it happen. Light Shabbat candles, put on tefillin, reach out to another Jew ... surely we are at the tipping point where our mitzvah could truly be the one to launch us into the era of Moshiach and true peace.
Rabbi Uriel Vigler, together with his wife Shevy direct the Chabad Israel Center of the Upper East Side of Manhattan
