I had a whirlwind trip to Israel for 4 days this past shabbos. I went for the special occasion of my grandson's Bris. It was emotionally packed from the get go. My words will not do it justice, but here goes... I met my daughter Ester Rochel there, who also flew in for the simcha but stayed even shorter. We stayed at the Kfar Maccabiah Hotel in Ramat Gan, which has its own unique history. We walked a lot the last few days, and I can tell you, that almost every car and pram has a yellow ribbon tied to it, supported proudly by huge Israeli flags on basically every house. There is a Shul next to Yossi and Noga’s apartment which I will rename, The Sholom Aleichem Shul. It's almost the same size as Central Synagogue. It felt like every member was on the welcoming committee because I got the red carpet treatment, being greeted by everyone including the Rabbi, who was the first to come over. There was a Barmi shabbos day, but the Gabbayim made sure I got an Aliya. On sunday afternoon we returned to the hotel to freshen up. We arrived to the presence of 40 or 50 Chayalim who had come straight from being in Gaza for 40 days. It is mandatory after being away on missions that the Unit has 2 days of absolute chilling and winding down in such a place as this hotel. The safes in the rooms are not big enough for their weapons, so whether they were by the pool or the bar or chilling with beer under the beautiful peaceful trees, there lay next to each of them, some serious hardware. As we walked into the lobby, one of them grabbed me and said he needed a minyan for mincha in the hotel shul. After spending 40 brutal days in Gaza, Mincha is their number one priority. They range in age from young to old and my new friend introduced me to his commanding officer, who happens to be a neurosurgeon, whom he calls a Living Legend.
On Monday morning , I went to Hostage Square in Tel Aviv. I arrived at 7.20 am and stayed for 2 hours. The people who normally come every day were not there yet, so I just walked around taking photos. I actually could not stop sobbing. There was one man with a number of posters that he was carefully pinning up all over the place. After he finished his rounds he sat down with a couple of posters on his lap, just in his own zone. I went over to him and asked him who the girl in the poster is to him. He calmly said that she is his daughter, Inbar Hayman, who was murdered on Oct 7th and whose body was taken back to Gaza. He rhetorically asked me, ‘Why?’ He sat Shiva, said his Kaddish but Chaim Hayman just wants to bury his daughter. We hugged a real hug and then Chaim sincerely thanked me for coming to Israel and for coming over to him.
Unfortunately, a trip to Israel these days is imbued with sadness, despair and upheaval. Everyone is in a state of trauma. But going for a simcha and holding new life in my hands, going through the motions of a bris mila, the centuries old tradition of welcoming precious life into the nation of Am Yisroel, brings hope and light and the promise of a better future. Mi K'amcha Yisroel.
