NOWHERE TO START

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NOWHERE TO START

Harav Y. Reuven Rubin Shlita

I sit at my keyboard stung, as I am certain you all are. We have all had a Yom tov of convoluted feelings. Our sweet children scrambling about for their sweets as our minds eye conjures up what must be happening in Eretz Hakodesh. Rumours run rampart whilst every non-Jewish neighbour becomes a foreign correspondent for his Jewish friends. The hodge podge of news scraps just build up our anxiety and we each grab hold onto our tefillas with greater fervor. Owing to the vagaries of preparing a Heimisha newspaper over a yom tov period I had prepared an article for parshas Bereshis that is well worth a read, but it will have to wait, it is too trivial when the world has been set aflame. Please allow me to share a message I received late last night; its words speak to the Yiddishe Heart in all Jews.

“I am, literally, dead tired but I feel compelled to write this note in memory of Dvir Karp, a dear and close friend of ours, who was among the first victims in Kibbutz Reim, yesterday morning. Dvir and his friend, Stav, were barbarically murdered right in front of his kids (… ages 9 and 11) while trying to protect and save them from the barbarian attack of the Hamas who infiltrated Reim to murder and kidnap as many people as possible (… to be used as human shield when the time comes), taking advantage of the Sabbath and the fact that people sleep late over the weekend. Just before they broke into his house, and shortly after the shelling from Gaza started, Dvir was communicating with his ex-wife, Reut, assuring her that the kids are with him and that they are safe and protected. Shortly after, things took a turn for the worst and he stopped replying. A few minutes later his ex-wife received a one last communication from his mobile. It was her youngest daughter (… age 11 ….) with the following communication: ‘Mum, this is D– dad was just murdered, so was Stav – HELP!!!

We later learned that the terrorists took the kids to the Miklat (… an anti-shelling secured room, commonly used in Israel), tucked them in bed and, using a lipstick, wrote on the wall ‘Hamas do not kill kids’ in Arabic which is the only reported case (… so far) where Hamas spared the life of our kids (… you have, yet, to hear the stories we have – the kind of stories that will take you back to Nazi Germany!

This tear drenched email is a real-life reminder of what is going on at this moment in the life of all our brethren in Israel. I don’t want to go into the why’s and wherefore of the current events that have plagued our people, nor the deep divisions that have surfaced over the last few weeks. However, one must be blind not to see that what we as Am Hakodesh must do immediately is sweep aside all our differences and become glued in our common oneness as Hashem’s children. We will all be davening in these days, this has been our holy way since we have been in Golus, let us daven for peace, yes, and for achdus, which has aways been our foolproof weapon of holy victory.