Letting the Tears Flow- Yom Hazikaron -Israel Memorial Day 2019- March of the Living -Ari Abramowitz

first sergeant Michael Levine returned early to Israel from visiting his family in America to join his comrades following the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War in 2006 he fell fighting in southern Lebanon ari Abramowitz former IDF soldier and director of the Land of Israel Network will share with us his memories of Michael I always find it extraordinarily difficult to share my heart ano Mazique our own not only with all of you but with myself to really share my heart to really open up because uh I've put up walls I know I've put up all these subconscious barriers that prevent me from really feeling the pain the searing visceral pain and loss the incalculable unimaginable loss that we as the Jewish people have faced not only since the foundation of Israel all of the soldiers that have died but civilians that have been murdered in terrorist attacks as well the loss is beyond what we can ever imagine each individual precious soldier that's killed every civilian that's murdered was their own world weddings that would never happen children that would never be born lives that would never be lived it's like a tree being severed at the root every one of them was an entire world and then I look out at all of you you've just arrived from the furnaces of Europe were you vicariously witnessed the systematic annihilation of six million worlds 6 million 6 million lights put out you've witnessed that and now you've arrived in Israel in the land of your father's your indigenous homeland that you've been exiled from for 2,000 years you've arrived back home and how are you greeted you're greeted by 400 missiles shot from Gaza into Israel four killed hundreds wounded you're greeted with the same genocide 'el hatred unquenchable irrational hatred that fuel - wits to begin with not only here in Israel not only in the Middle East but around the world from Pittsburgh to San Diego to Brussels to Paris Jew hatred anti-semitism is rising like we haven't seen since the times of the Holocaust I can imagine that many of you are putting up your walls as well how could you not Jewish history even just recent Jewish history the pain of it can be so overwhelming and unbearable how can we not put up walls but I think that is our job here tonight not only tonight but tomorrow on all of yo Mazique our own with all of our might to take down those walls to allow the pain in to allow the tears to flow to really experience the loss that we as the family of the Jewish people have faced because I believe also from my experience and my faith that on the other side of that wall lies light and love and inspiration that could change the entire course of our lives there are so many stories that I want to tell you I have limited time but I don't even know how to choose you know my fellow soldiers the ones that I feel the closest to they hit the closest to home I wouldn't want to start and I have to start with Mikey Mikey Levin how many of you have heard of Mikey he's a legend in Israel and he deserves to be he was born in Philadelphia the grandson of a Holocaust survivor which I'm sure fueled his overwhelming passion to join the Israeli army he got here to Israel and they actually didn't let him in they refused him I don't really know the reasons why but they refused him and he scaled the walls of the induction Center climbed in up the walls jumped into the window of what ended up being one of the top officers of the induction Center who was obviously so moved by his tenacity passion that they made an exception and they let him in and he joined the the paratroopers they're the G bouche the tryouts for the paratroopers were very difficult I was always bigger and stronger than Mikey but I didn't get in he did he got in he had the heart of a lion and when he got in when it came time to actually parachute to jump out of the airplane they said that he couldn't do it because he was too light and the wind would just blow him away so he said don't worry about I'll just tie some sandbags to my legs and that's what he did when the Lebanon War broke out he was in Philadelphia visiting his family the war broke out and his parents begged him not to leave his commanders told him he didn't need to leave he could stay behind but he jumped on the first plane he wouldn't hear of it jumped on the first plane went directly back to Israel fought his way back up to where his unit was in Lebanon to the frontlines and he was shot and killed by a sniper in Lebanon and then there's Yosef Goodman I know I knew him since he was a little boy magnetic charismatic fantastic athlete one of those guys that you didn't even have freewill you just had to love him he was so good in such a scientist he got into the mud lon elite paratroopers units and he was jumping from the airplane and the his parachute got tangled with that of his commander moments to react he selflessly cut off the strings of his own parachute sacrificing his life to allow his commander to live and then there's Rowi Klein wrote it Klein is a legend of Israel he was a Torah scholar a man of kindness he left behind his wife and his two children in that Lebanon war and when he was in a bunker surrounded by his fellow soldiers a grenade was thrown in with seconds to react he jumped on top of the grenade and his last words were Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad there's max Steinberg Shawn carmely Alex singer there's so many more the bravery the courage the selflessness it's such a model it's so inspiring and it's so uplifting but then there's the terror victims these are civilians that have been murdered by terrorists in in Israel we remember them as well because as we see on the news they say that Gaza is firing missiles indiscriminately into Israel but we know that's not true it's not indiscriminate they are focusing with all of the precision that they can on the population centers to maximize the murder of men women and children their war is not with the IDF their war is with every single Jew living in Israel so we remember them as well one of those that I carry with me I'm dear friends with the family many of you have maybe heard of Kobi Mandel I don't have time to tell each one of these entire stories I wish I could share but he was just a little boy 12 years old he wasn't even bar Mitzvahed yet he was a great athlete as well in dodgeball and he would pick teams he would always pick the weakest one he was unusually kind for a twelve-year-old and one day he and his friend Yosef Easter on they skipped school they're that mischievous bent to them and they skipped school and they went out to the Judean Hills and they went into one of the caves where terrorists came upon them and bludgeoned them to death so horribly that they could only be identified by their dental records and then there's dr. David Applebaum and his daughter Nava dr. Applebaum is known throughout Jerusalem he's also a legend because you break your leg here in Israel you can't go to the emergency room necessarily there's teram teram is set up it's like a middle emergency-room type of place where you can go and get excellent care and he and he created that he invented that he brought it to the world he brought it to Israel and he and his daughter Nava the day before the night before her wedding they went to Cafe Hill oh and a terrorists set off a bomb that killed them both so unfortunately there are new members of this holy congregation and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that which I'm still reeling from which I've shed more tears than I can ever remember shedding in my entire adult life and that was for a mentor of mine a real hero re fold he was a real war hero he was a real fighter but he was also a man of tremendous cut said he was a mentor because he was a such a fierce Israel advocate it's sort of what I do a little bit but what I would look at re and I would say you know what he's on the job I don't need to do it he would he didn't care who what people thought of him he didn't care how many views he got on YouTube he went out and he fought the good fight and he loved debating love to me even at a show in Israel called where he debated peace now he was more on the Rights he debated peace now it was called frenemies frenemies why was it called frenemies because friends and enemies he would always make sure that no matter how fierce the debate was he went to his opponent he said this rift between us is only between ideas not between us we're family we love each other nothing can come between that he understood a lesson which many of us have lost over 2,000 years of the Exile that were not a religion were not co-religionists were a family and that transcends politics it transcends geography it transcends everything we're a family well between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur of this past year ask anyone in the country where they were when they heard this news they remember where they were he was on the way to the grocery store to pick up food for Shabbat his wife Miriam said too much about shopping list and he went to pick up food and a terrorist came upon him stabbed him in the back directly through the heart according to doctors he should not have lived even ten seconds but Ari would not leave the world in that way and he turned around and he jumped over two concrete barriers as his primary artery was bleeding out and he shot the terrorists before the terrorist was able to go and harm anyone else there's so many stories I want to tell but there's one story that I think is particularly relevant that will help all of us in this mission of taking our walls down this is a story about a man named hiam Shapiro and his son baro baro Shapiro higham was in he endured the seven levels of hell beyond what any of us could imagine he was in the ghetto liquidated from the ghetto for different concentration camps he lost his wife and seven of his children and when Buchenwald was liberated all that was left of his entire family was he and his son Baro they spent a few years in a DP camp and finally they're able to get on a ship on the way to the land of Israel and they arrived in 1948 as Israel is undergoing a war for it's very survival overwhelming odds against the nation-state of Israel and borrow immediately volunteered for the army they gave him a gun they taught him how to shoot a few bullets and they sent him to the frontlines and he fought with bravery he fought under Yitzhak Rabin he fought against the Arab siege of Jerusalem he actually got a Medal of Honor a valor for courage under fire and then one fateful day one fateful day it happened now at the time at the time his father higham was in a small apartment in Tel Aviv and that delegation that dreaded delegation of three army officers carrying that dreaded Brown envelope we're walking through to the building people say that when they saw this delegation carrying this envelope it was like seeing the Angel of Death passed by and they came up to borrow to to Himes apartment and they gave him the envelope and supposedly he couldn't even open it he crumpled it and he just dropped it to the floor now the next day hundreds of people gathered in her Herzl at the funeral of Baro they didn't know hi I'm Roberto personally but they heard this tragic story of a Holocaust survivor who lost everything but his one son and an Arabs bullet was able to do what Hitler's crematoria were not and now his entire line was ended and so hundreds came out to mourn and as Himes stood there next to general Yi Galya Dean as they were lowering Barros body into the ground and her Herzl he began to sing they thought he had lost it someone brought him water and no he said no he kept singing and he turned to everybody in the crowd and he said I want you to know I've been through hell like none of you can imagine it within one year I lost 70 family members I lost seven children I lost my wife I don't know where any of them are buried and I don't know why any of them died but my son Barra I know why he died he died so the Jewish people can have a homeland in the Land of Israel and I know where he's buried he's buried here in Jerusalem and that's not a reason to cry that's a reason to sing at this point I want to take this opportunity for one moment to thank the leadership of march of the living because it's so important it's so important what you're doing this trip this mission this journey I remember my trip to the gas chambers to Auschwitz to Treblinka to Birkenau you know before I had I had seen Schindler's List I read the Diary of Anne Frank but it was a little bit more abstract and academic for me being there seeing it experience it made it so much more real and immediate and it inspired me it inspired it contributed to the inspiration which led me to join the Israeli army never again would we be led like sheep to the slaughter even when I was in Gaza and we had to dig trenches to defend this Jewish village behind us from Hamas infiltration we had to dig trenches that would soon be barrage by mortars I remember a wave of gratitude come over me when I was digging this trench and I realized how many times throughout Jewish history have we had to dig trenches for up for ourselves to be executed into and now I'm digging a trench to defend the nation of Israel in the Land of Israel on behalf of the God of Israel ashrae new motto volcano what a merit what a privilege to be a Jew in the world today so I want to bless us that we're able to to take our walls down tonight to let the pain in and to let the tears flow because on the other side of those walls is a light the breadth of the six million of the holy soldiers who sacrificed their lives for Israel of the terror victims who sacrificed their lives in order to live here in Israel their breath comes through our mouth and we can live life of vibrance and joy and meaning in the land of Israel because of them Shalom