SWORDS OF IRON WAR – 40th Day

WEDNESDAY                                  15.11.2023

Comfort, comfort my people...

Three young men told us that they lost friends and children of friends this week. Some were killed, some were abducted, some were slaughtered.

No, these were not friends of our age group, nor friends from the various volunteered places we frequent. Those were young men who were service providers such as waiters. They felt comfortable telling us of their pain. They did not lose family members, so they had no one else to mourn with them, and no one else to understand their hurt.

How painful that must be to lose a person you knew or even “just” befriended and not be able to share that pain of the loss since you really expected yourself to be the one who comforted others.

I could not comfort any of them. I just stood there and told them of the friends I lost in wars that Israel did not start but had to fight, and allowed tears to well up in my eyes. No comfort can be given, it is not enough.

Telling about the miracles that took place so far in Gaza did not comfort anyone at all. It only raised the question of why there was no miracle for the ones we lost? I did have a logical answer, it did not help the pain or the sorrow.

I thought afterward that Job's friends spent seven days with him and did not talk at all. I know that a few times when I went to the “Shiva” (the seven days of mourning after a funeral), all I could do was bring something cooked and sit without talking with the mourning family. I did that with friends, Jews and Arabs alike.

But this time, with these young men, all I can do is allow my tears to well my eyes and listen.

October 7, is the blackest Shabbat in Israel's memory; today is day 40 of war and mourning, shock and pain, the Swords of Iron War will be forever thought of as the second Holocaust.

I read that the French President and the Canadian PM chose to condemn Israel for fighting Hamas in Gaza. Both were considered friends by the Israelis. The pain of such hostile action toward us is worse than that of an enemy. There are no words to express how deep that knife is piercing the heart. Maybe I need to quote Shekspeer, “You too Brutus?”

40 days of fighting hell. God, please comfort your people, we cannot win that battle alone. 

A band-aid is not enough