Tisha B'av 2024 - Rabbi Yaakov Glasser: Flames and Faith: Discovering Hope in the Embers of Churban

I want to begin by acknowledging the sponsorship of Mark and sippi brand in memory of harav elzer Zev perlau Whose y site was the 16th of tamos Sora Bran bbam who the yite is the 10th of tamuz and all of the family members who were killed in the Holocaust every year I walk into this room with a very large stack of books books of Jewish history books of the Jewish story books that could help us reach back into our past into our tradition into our story to try to bring some meaning to try to bring some connection to try to bring some sense of resonance for the loss of a b mikdash that was so many thousands of years ago and how that loss continues to Echo in the reality of our Jewish communal life today and my hands felt in certain ways much lighter this morning and in other ways much heavier much lighter because the truth is this year we don't need any books this year the books are in this room and the books are all over the world the books and the stories are in this room for those whose children are fighting on the front lines the books and the stories are in this room for those who've sacrificed children fighting on the front lines the books are in this room for those who have relatives family and friends in ER Israel how many of us have been asked by people out in the world whether it's a coworker or someone at a supermarket who sees a yamaka so do you know anyone in Israel do you have any family in Israel and it's like impossible for them to understand of course we have we have millions of family members in Israel I remember that I was encountering an individual who said to me do you know anyone in Israel I'm we're fighting for you we're thinking about you we're praying for you he even showed me that he had a tattoo that said I love Israel I said you know we have t-shirts that say that you don't enough to Brand your body but I said I have two children learning in Israel he goes oh you must be so worried so I said they're in Jerusalem it's okay in Jerusalem it's okay say so how far is Jerusalem from Gaza said oh 45 minutes without traffic something like that guy looked at me like I was out of my mind the stories this year are in their room at the very conclusion of shakas every single morning as we prepare to transition from the Transcendent experience of connection and appealing to AES to the mundane realities of our life as the Fillin are starting to come off we recite an embedded element into our liturgy a par of toim a parim that is known as the sh the song of the day [Music] was a space of spirituality it was a space of accentuated ritual engaging the process of bringing aanem or more generally serving in the mikdash was a very intense and high stakes engagement in connecting with aes's presence in this world and it required Precision it required focus it required choreography and how to walk within the world of physicality in this earth and somehow bring the sense of self into the domain of the infinite spiritual world of the mikdash the world of kadim every step every blade every single moment every sing Le aspect prescribed exactly precisely how to be OB in theik and encompassing those moments of connection beyond the specific requirements of the aod itself beyond the ritual was the immersive and experiential atmosphere what it meant to be in the B mikash and that was generated that was created by the emoting harmonies of the levim Shir that was the song of the and there's a discussion in the regarding what the source of this notion is of having Shir as a musical component of the mikash and while the accepted opinion for that Source somewhat differs from one of the ones that are suggested in the gimar the how do we know that we sing in the how do we know we don't just say the words and we don't just Slaughter the animals how do we know that it's an atmosphere of song of Because the Torah tells us in the context of the to in the context of the rebuke the for in premonitions of the tragedies of Jewish history of all places the Torah tells us that one of the reasons we encounter this tragedy one of the things that's responsible for the unraveling of the Jewish people's connection with a is not that we are not careful about and and not because we don't ask enough sh but [Music] because we don't serve with passion with emotion with the authenticity that comes from truly expressing from the depths of our heart that this is something we want this is something we desire this is something we aspire to connect to says the G what does it mean to in an animal dealing with all of its various organs burning it maybe eating it where's the what's the says the this is the dimension of the mikdash experience that is enveloped by song by Shir and we are told that the lack of sim is part of what is responsible for the compromise of the Jewish people the is telling us that the way we Infuse Sim into our is through the medium of Shira Shira that requires of a person to summon their inner emotions like the Mahar writes on the very enigmatic phrase with regards to P perhaps one of the most censal expressions of Shir of Jewish history the first Shir o y what's the O the O then they sang Yash is what's the equivocation no no says because to sing you can't just turn on the music music you can't just begin to to express harmonies and music to really sing has to come from the heart it has to come from the soul song music is how we express the inner dimensions of our soul and in fact the entire Torah itself lest we think that the notion of sh that the notion of song is simply a layer that is intended to just facilitate a greater sense of connection the entirety of the Torah itself is called a Shir the the r writes the requirement of every Jew the 613th Mitzvah to write a safer Torah or to participate in the writing of a safer Torah this Torah that I'm giving you it's not a book of rules it's not a book of stories it's the soul of the Jewish people it's the Inner Essence of who we are it's our song the Torah is the anthem of CLA Israel there is no Inner Essence of the Jewish people without that animating Force the she of CLA Israel Shir is our initial response to the birth and the Redemption of our people a Yash Moshe and it is the final prophetic depiction of our journey throughout Jewish history as the Shir ofu captures the totality of what it means to sing for is Osos each and every day each and every Y and I'm so I'm so happy that it was RAB rothberger H in shakas this morning because he's one of the few people in this who knows the for weekday ouros are framed by our tradition tells us go all the way back to seni there were aspects the notion that no matter where you go in the world that as soon as in a few weeks we hear those tones n what does that bring forward for us what does that bring forward for us Shir is the soul of the Jewish people and when the gimar Inus describes the moment of Destruction three weeks we've been mourning Shas The Nine Days sh and now we sit on the floor mourning that very moment of penetration says when the first was destroyed and the gar is going to say at the end the exact same thing happened in the second one also that day was the day of and it was a one of the ways we know the calendar today is this T is this gar this source that that year of was the year after and it was the mishar it was the particular period of time where this family ofanim were in charge of the B says the [Music] and what was going on in that bik the Le were standing and they were saying sh what sh were they saying and there's a lot of discussion is this the right sh for that they couldn't even finish the song Until the enemy of the Jewish people cut it short and penetrated the mikdash and that song was left unfinished the aod of the mikdash has been undermined for weeks the mishna tells us there was no more carbon atom already for three weeks it's the Shas bamos and yet even though the carbonos may have ceased and the mikos as we knew it may have been brought to a halt and perhaps there were no longer animals and there were no longer carbonos and there were no longer opportunities to come and converge the S edin no longer sitting in the lishkas AIS the opportunity to be able to come together in the mikdash but there seemed to be one dimension that continued and that was the rising armony of the levim as they tried so hard to hold on to the mikdash in those final moments not through but through song a final kits if you will and that moment is echoed thousands of years later has described in the famous story that the majbi who was a great who was saved from the sh had AEL f who himself was a tremendous kazin and known throughout Warsaw for his incredible voice and known for his tunes and as the dark clouds began to cover the Skies of Europe and there were terrible terrible decrees most Jews couldn't fathom what was going to happen to them but somehow they were able to Usher to safety the majbi outside of Poland and at the time tens of thousands of Jews were being shipped off daily to their death in cattle cars and inside these crowded cars people were crying people were gasping for air people were dying and you could hear the cries of people being crushed together but in one car eded towards trinka in one car you actually heard the sound of singing Because it seemed that this neighbor this individual this elderly Jew was starting to write a niggan on this train to trink and he saw before his eyes the [Music] words and he began to write the very famous niggan [Music] on the train to trinka and as the train began to follow him and began to sing this Ley that is singing the song of the mikdash as theim are walking in and conquering the mikem he says to the train if anyone could take the song to the MBI I'll give you my and two crazy kids two teenagers Escape through a hole in the roof of the car and they make their way or one of them makes their way escaping the shaah and makes his way to the rebba and he gives him the song that's how we have this famous an and it's been reported by so many people that this was the nigan this was the Shir that the Jewish people were singing many of them as they marched to their deaths and the mudget are rebis said that with this niggan the Jewish people went to the gas Chambers and with this Nan the Jewish people will greet Messiah we sit today in the very raw and Searing pain of our own and a for which we didn't need the three weeks and we didn't need the nine days curtailing our laundry ceasing the eating of meat all seem entirely Superfluous in striving to connect us to the realities of the unredeemed Jewish experience and it is arod today on Tish to sensitively guide our open wounds of tragedy into the broader landscape of the gullis experience to recognize the Tish above within October 7th and to discover the October 7th within Tish to see how our distance from the Rabon since those moments of hban is part of the compromised reality that generated such vulnerability and to contextualize the generations of cries of a into our own moment of overwhelming anyone who has read or listened to or visit vised with people who were in ER Israel and October 7th knows that all of the stories begin exactly the same way it was Simas Torah morning at 6:30 a.m. and we started to hear a sirens and almost everyone who tells the story tells you that at the first moments they weren't nervous you know why not would we be nervous if we woke up at 6:30 in the morning and there were Aid sirens and pic we would be quite nervous they weren't nervous because they've habituated to this reality as part of what it means to be a Jew in AR Israel but as the sirens became more intense as the booms became more intense they begin to unfold the story it was only hour since we completed the dancing and the sh of and in this whole experience unfolded while we were anticipating the Gathering and vibrant celebratory dancing of sim Tor and this notion that so many people were pulled away from the world of Shir were pulled away from the world of Simas Torah this notion that the that the world that the enemies of the Jewish people pierce the sanctity of what it means to be in a b mikdash while Mish while CL is was dancing bishir culminating completing celebrating this inner song of the Jewish people and that is the moment that the enemy of am Israel that the enemies of the world that the enemies of anyone who is good and represents virtue and nobility in this world that is the moment that they enter the mikem in the end of October I took a trip to S Israel with a number of Rabon at the time it felt like the war had been going on for so long it was three weeks into it now it seems like we were there like right when it happened and we were eating dinner in a hotel with a group of families who were displaced and a man comes running up to us a young guy comes running up to us and he says what is this what's your group what's going on and we said there were a group of rabim that came to get and give to the people of Israel and the guy says to us you have to meet my father I have to take you to meet my father and he brings us over to his father and his father asks if he could address the group who are we to say that uh okay great you'll address the group the father's name is R Herzel shobi and he begins to tell the group his experience of October 7th re Herzel is a RV of aulin stot and he tells the story to all of the that are sitting there 30 40 rabim sitting there you know what it's like when you get toim Torah morning there's a lot you have to prepare for there's a lot to set up there's a lot going on you have to make sure everything's set to go so I was in the Shool I was in the Shool like all the rest of you were in the Shool setting up getting ready to go and I heard shooting outside and all of the sudden I look outside and I see there are terrorist running the streets of stot we would the next day be in stot and they showed us in the room where they monitor security for the city video footage of literally terrorists just roaming the streets driving throughout the streets unrestrained and the courageous battles that took place on the streets of Israel to try to reclaim the safety and security of am Israel and he write and he told us that he was standing outside the shol trying to figure out what's going on and all of the sudden the Sho was right near the police station which was the site of one of the biggest battles of stads and all of the sudden he was it he was shot in the back and the bullet pierced he would learn later through his chest it went through his liver it damaged his spleen and he collapsed there and he pulled himself back into the sh he was there alone and he was lying there and he was bleeding and he said to himself this is it he's saying is he's saying V and then he tells our group and then I pulled myself together and I said to myself Reish why was I in this line of fire why was I able to be it by this sniper because I Was preparing for your Shira for your son song for your Torah for your people for your children I was here in the sh like I've been every day of my life giving every fiber of my being to CLA Israel you cannot take my life that's all I want it for the D leaving my body all I wanted for is to be able to continue to serve you and to serve your people and he writes and he told us he told us that at that point somebody was able to come and put him not in an ambulance but in his car and get him to a hospital where they did emergency surgery and ultimately he was at this hotel recovering until he could go back and be able to connect with his kahila who he explained to us was spread out all over he was shot preparing for Shir Ellie Beer and his book that describes the heroic actions of hatah on that day describes that at one point onim Torah when the situation was not under control but there was nothing more that they could do for the next few moments from their headquarters someone brought in a saer Torah and they very quickly they realized it Torah they very quickly they read the end of the Torah and they gave everyone in aliyyah because the Jewish people even under fire do not stop saying you don't get to take control of our that's the legacy of the Le you could take the carbonos you could take the aod you could take the Kor you could take the Aron you could take all these things you don't get to take our song and every Jew every Jew is a walking sa for Torah every Jew is a walking Shir when we tear Korea for AOS the US why because every Jew embodies the essence of a saer Torah how many people murdered maimed and captured how many Torah Li destroyed am many shirros cut short the Earth's shattering reality that generated such confusion and uncertainty what do we do with the Shir that was the challenge here in America but there was virtually not a Sho in the world some a little less some a little more some slow some some fast some on the floor some standing up but there was virtually without any communication there were no WhatsApp groups you couldn't ask shilas I remember sitting in my house afternoon in Rab from the Tiff my good good friend Rabbi coming over so we could talk it through and what do we do what do we do with this we had no information all we had was whatever security guards knew and whatever hatala seemed to know but there was some there was a voice inside us it didn't make any sense we knew that people were dying we knew that CLA was at War we had already seen soldiers go off to battle but there was something inside every Jew that said H not out of denial not because oh we don't want them to ruin our party there was something in the heart there was a seor in the AR there was a sheir in the art of every Jew that somehow felt this is not how CLA ISRO reacts to we don't react by silencing Shir and somehow in some way in every Sho they found some way to sing as the levim did themselves and I remember the next shabus the next shabus no one knew what to do how do we make chabas by the next shabus we already knew what was going on by the next shabas we already knew that what sounded like rumors and and unimaginable possibilities was in fact a reality by the next shabus we already knew oh what do we do we come in we sit in sh you did nees what do we do what do we do and no one knew what to do and some kid some kid who was in the IDF I think his name was Ary and I think he's from Baltimore someone told me he made a video and and he in this video he asked the Jewish world not to make Tish of on shabis barous but that they should sing and they should dance more this shabas than any other shabas and this Friday night when we come to cabal shabas in MV we should Davin in the Merit of the soldiers who cannot DAV in cabal shabas because they're fighting on the front lines and he would he said in the video normally a Kabal Shabbat I'd be singing and dancing and bringing in chabas with so much Sim because of the missions that we have to do we'll be unable to doin so you do it for me and we announced in the sh that we were going to have one minion that chabas and that everyone should come men women children everyone should come one cabala shabas and I never saw anything like it in my life even the people who find a kbach Friday night to be just below worshiping Mo people who mamish like it's visceral they can't do it it just it's over there wasn't a dry eye in the Sho everyone was singing everyone was dancing it was at that point that I realized a very important yod about American jewry and that is they'll do anything the soldiers tell them to do so I had a friend who's a soldier and I had him make a video for the Sho telling everyone to come to my Shum and to pay their dues we sent it around the sh Shir that is what the L were doing that is what they tried to sever and that is how CLA yro responds major Amish Ben David was a reserved commander in the IDF who was tragically killed during combat in the southern Gaza Strip he was from Ai and he was a beloved father son and friend he was a volunteer and he was a Kidney donor and he was killed and left behind his wife schlomit and their five children and schlomit describes that she found out that he was killed right before shabas and all of the sudden she didn't know what to do with herself and all of the sudden right before shabas begins all of his soldiers begin to show up and they begin to stand with her and they said to her we're going to sing Shalom Alim and may begin to sing sh that's how CLA responds we never stop singing when we were on our trip we spent some time at a base a base that was responsible for the functions ofra kadish and we got to meet there a bigadic Ben M and I'm not going to share all of the details of the things we saw but it was enough to shake you to your core we saw how they identify people and how they treat with such covet am the contrast between the enemies of the Jewish people and us how we treat every drop of blood every piece of Flesh with such covet with such respect even under an IM imaginable circumstances where one would expect just get it done at the expense of what will no doubt be permanent mental health damage to the people who had to do this job there are not enough hours in a lifetime through therapy to unsee what they saw to process what they saw and after this incredible experience and meeting these amazing soldiers we sat down to lunch we sponsored a barbecue and we ate and we got to eat with the soldiers and have a more normal experience and sit with them and talk with them and all of the sudden towards the end of the lunch one person stood up in his area of the table there were long long tables and he started to sing oh the anthem of T then another Soldier joined and within about five minutes the whole room was singing and within 10 minutes the whole room was up from the barbecue dancing and the dancing went on and on and song after song with the RV and all of the sudden at the at the time of shows up he joins the singing he starts giving them bras and they're dancing together we're singing together in this place of death in this place that makes a b look like the most dignified calm place in the world we're singing and we're dancing and my good soberg said over at Torah in the name of the BTO a cod as SPO what in the Jewish people we don't just have times for mourning and times for dancing and Jewish histor sometimes we do both that's what makes CLA Israel last and you see that you see that in almost every levah that you watch in Israel how song how singing becomes part of the experience you see it how in the aim come back to their communities and their neighbors are lining the streets singing the K of Shir the to sing and that's what we're told in the parim that is so relevant for this period of time alar that's what CL Israel sitting on the narrow B is saying to themselves not how we going to keep shabus not how are we going to keep kasas not how are we going to have shs and schools and learn Torah how we going to sing Al how we going to sing in G because they understood that that is the Ultimate key that that is the ultimate Foundation of how the Jewish people are able to absorb centuries and centuries of persecution and still find the vitality and vibrancy within themselves to advance am you throw forward make no mistake we took many many losses on that day and there was enormous destruction and I'm telling you if you were there over the past year and saw saw what these homes looked like saw what these communities looked like saw what these bases looked like you would never sleep again we took many many losses and yes they pierced the walls of our yush they pierced the mikem they got in to the very heart and soul of the Jewish people and they took our best they took our best but they couldn't stop Our Song and whether you were in a Sho or you were in your home or you were at a music festival connecting in your own way I met one of the survivors of the Nova Festival on one of our trips and I was talking to him about music I'm a musician I love music in fact my band from high school just uh put together a WhatsApp group we all just reconnected for the first time it's okay we only knew three songs but we made money and got out of school and we were talking about music and he was explaining to me the type of music that he's into I think it's called trans music I don't know anyway we made a deal he's going to send me his music I'm going to send him my music and we made a music two people one not religious at all want a r of a community in pic connecting over Shir connecting over the song of the Jewish people we took a lot of losses that day but they weren't really able to get us to stop singing That's the legacy of the Levine until the very last moment the Shira of the Jewish people the Torah of the Jewish people the strength and the Sim of the Jewish people and that's why Tish even though it's a day of tremendous AOS is also a day of moade it's a day of moade because we're here to be sitting on the floor because at the end of the day just like the Romans are gone and the Babylonians are gone and the Nazis are gone so to Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Iran and then all of these people they'll be gone that's that's statistically empirical That's History there's no reason to expect otherwise but that Shir that Shira that we sang in the B that Shir that the L were singing We may have delayed it a little bit today but before we start M we're going to sing that Shir again that sh of we're going to begin Kos with kav kav begins with the word as we mention each and every year many our joy has ceased shavas it ceased it stopped and R Sal would point out and he would emphasize this word shavas of course evokes for us the imagery of shabus shabis as the r the Torah tells us that rested on the seventh day says the that sounds like he he started shabus on shabus who didn't have my he couldn't figure maybe he didn't know his location very confusing sometimes first you have to find the ZIP code okay on the L flight they could tell you my and where you are at different points in time now Shak 642 now it's 643 now it's at 44 so didn't know when shabas started well he got home late he he showering 18 minutes like what's the problem so the gar tells us that akes understands when says Rashi understands can Define the precise moment that chabas begins the precise moment that chabas begins and therefore to us it appears it looks like a is actually starting shabas on shabas because we don't know the exact moment shabas begins we have a we're not sure from when 18 minutes after candle lighting till we're not sure is that chabas is it not chabus and there are halakic ramifications of being unsure certain things are permitted during that time because we're not sure we're not sure maybe it's chabas maybe it's not chabas K who knows exactly within that period of time it becomes chabas so if we saw Hashem light L it would look to us like he's bringing it in on shabis says the shabis comes with a suddenness for a it comes at an instant it comes without seeing the the possibilities and the r rites that that's how theban was experienced as well that even though theban was a culmination of many years and many decades of erosion of the Jewish people's relationship with Hashem and even though the there were all sorts of signs that this was coming and even though there were Nim that told them this was coming and even though the amount of perod The amount of Discord in am Israel was so pronounced that how could anyone think we're worthy of such a mikem even though anyone who would take two seconds to look at the landscape of reality would have seen that this was coming when it came it came in an instant they didn't see it coming because those warning signs had receded every year when I prepare for kenos I look at what we did last year last year we sat in this room and we spoke of a shavas moment for the Jewish people that we were going to commemorate only a few weeks later we spoke extensively of the Yum Kipper War the notion of the presumed penetrability of the state of Israel when in reality she stood vulnerable to attack and we related to it as a historical relic of outdated policies weighted by the ubis of military overconfidence and a permeating attitude of K Yi we spoke about the garrisons manned by small groups of soldiers shockingly abandoned to engage the enemy with virtually no support many of whom were overrun kill and taken captive and these were images and footage that lived largely in the black and white section of our national historical consciousness as we sat in the presumed safety of a generation Having learned our lessons from the missteps of history and then shavas in an instant The Echoes of the yel before reverberated with an intensity that was beyond comprehens if I read for you excerpts from Diaries and accounts you would not be able to discern which one was 1973 and which one was 2023 shabas it again came in an instant a woman named Neta tells the story in karaza that she stayed home and she had gone to sleep very late and at 6:30 a.m. the red alert sirens began her boyfriend Santi ran to the door to try to see what's going on are the Rockets being intercepted by Iron Dome the two of them went into the safe room and they remained there and they locked themselves in and at 7: a.m. they received a message through the kibuts WhatsApp group that terrorists may have infiltrated the kibutz until then they heard lots of explos explosions and they understood that something bigger was wrong but at that moment they realized that something they had never accounted for never imagined never planned for shavas out of nowhere out of nowhere a much bigger event was unfolding and at 8 in the morning he texted a friend on the kibutz who is the head of the Sha Regional Council and he asked him what was going on if you knew what was happening he told him not to worry Army units were on the way and they remained knocked in the safe room worried about their friends who were at the festival and she got on the phone with them she told them to come to them and then all of the sudden she sent this this boyfriend sent another text to her saying that his father and his grandmother had just been murdered and that they shouldn't leave their house because it was dangerous and then they understood that the arys had infiltrated the kibuts the apartment right next door to the was it by a rocket and they tried to be very quiet and they told their family they told their mother on the phone I could hear gunshots and she told me don't worry don't worry and all of the sudden they realized that they were in a much more difficult situation and they got up from the bed and they went to the door of the safe room and they started to hold the handle and they posted again on the WhatsApp group they should call the police the terrorists were on the kots and they were close by but she she didn't realize that they were entering every house and they were killing people one after the other and at around 10:30 a.m. she wrote to her father who's a police officer that she's in karaza there at terce he needs help she needs help and all of the sudden the electricity went off and they had no more way of communicating and they sat in the room in silence in the dark and they could hear the yelling near the window and her friend told her they're going to break the window and 10 minutes later they broke the window and they entered the apartment screaming and they approached the safe room and they tried to open the door and he elled the door with all his might and the error is shot through the door around a bullet and he was hit in his leg and he was wounded by a bullet that brushed his head she was hid in her right leg by a bullet and they were in shock they could not believe that this was happening they could not believe that in the picturesque beauty of their kibuts that they're being shot in their own home triy to text her father again no reception no electricity that she's shot finally Santi signal that we have to get out of here because they're burning the homes they somehow make their way out they see Kamas terrorists all over the kibuts some of them dressed as IDF soldiers they see the Border fence of the kibuts completely breached and finally they're trying to decide what should they do should they leave should they stay and they hear something metallic thrown at the door and they realized that they're throwing grenades so they they simply made their way out and they started to run and run and run and run deep into the kibuts in the opposite direction and they were hit again by more bullets and finally they found a place that they could that they could would rest and somehow miraculously they were able to get into a car with someone who was able to get them out of the kibutz into stot and from stot they were able to get into the hospital the entire mindset of the Jewish people the entire notion that the gift of the state of Israel gives us a certain sense of security a certain sense of stability and anchoring reality that this is our place this is our land and yes we have incidents we have problems we have issues we have skirmishes we have attacks but our homes are our homes all Shas all in an instant completely compromised completely breached and in an instant everyone's reality became something new that is part of what we're mourning this Tis of part of what we're mourning this Tish of is the Whiplash the Whiplash of CLA Isel trying reaching to understand what this new normal means for our people the Whiplash of relating to so many whose lives were forever changed and forever upended because of the experience of October 7th sh to many thisan came in an instant we were getting ready to sing We were getting ready for S no warning no anticipation that came in an instant for for for spe laad a how could you rush in your wrath ruining your loyal people at the hand of Rome so he say could point out that in yahadus we normally react to tragedy with the expression em or in our generation since we're very busy learning Torah we don't have a lot of time that's the normal reaction tells us we have to make Bros on bad things too we don't understand them we can't comprehend them we can't explain them but our faith has to live with them there famous play by Ellie wiel where they putes on trial in the Holocaust to see is God innocent or guilty for the tragedies that are befalling the Jewish people and the going back and forth you promised this and you did that you promis this and you did that you promised this and you did that exactly like this K and at the end you know what the was guilty and then the last line of the play so we declared God guilty and then someone clapped and said okay it's time for that's how we deal with tragedy we don't understand it we don't get it we can't comprehend it but we accept it and we move forward not on but forward and yet the language of Tish is so different says the rough the language of Tish is a language of of how could this happen and in the how is to some degree an assumption of of unrestrained wonderment how could this be almost a critique and it's very human and it's very real and the rub explained that the reason why this is permissible on tiab is because because of Y Ani y anovi saw so much tragedy and so much suffering that he is allowed and he is the m for Jewish history to be allowed to say one day a year this conversation is not going to be one where I just say you know this is going to be a real conversation I'm going to tell you how I feel I'm going to tell you what I think I'm going to tell you what's going on in the heart and soul of a how could you do this I'm going to say it as elizel says from within the circle of faith not from without I'm GNA make the D emis but give me a minute give me a minute before we star Korea give me a minute how could this happen we have seen over the course of the last number of months extraordinary faith faith of biblical proportions Faith from people who have some of the most limited contact with what we as a religious community would presume to be the most poignant and Powerful expressions of faith faith from people who don't do in three times a day who may not even keep shabas and Kus but Imon faith that that we we we who saturate our lives with these moments and rituals can't possibly approach profound deep and real Faith there have been moments of but there have been so many moments of explains the ru doesn't mean us it means us and a remember what's happening to all of us you too they came after you too there is a story that I heard about a religious woman who had two sons in the Army and one of them was injured and she showed up at the hospital on Friday afternoon she was without her family it was close to chabas and they kept saying where's your husband where's your sister where's your parents and she said I'm here with Hashem and I'm here with you and she became best friends with these kyot who were in the hospital and the other parents became her sisters and the other mothers very very close close relationships going through this common reality together even though some were religious some were not religious and she shared a story that her son arier her son arier whose walking was compromised by by his injury was doing a tremendous amount of surgery and a tremendous amount of physical therapy and he finally got to the point where he could get up on his two feet for the first time and it was an extraordinary Milestone those who had the opportunity to visit the rehab centers in ER Israel T sh and many others to meet these young boys whose lives have been changed forever with these amputations s to think about what a hard day does to our mood and our perspective and our sentiment and to look at what they are going to be living with for the rest of their life and to hear their sense of pride in what they fought for and what they sacrificed for and what they gave for how much they miss their unit how much they wish they could go back it's overwhelming it's extraordinary this boy arier was blessed with the possibility of walking again but in the room sharing the room with her was another soldier named Idan and Idan had lost a leg entirely and hean had lost a leg from the hip and they weren't sure if he was going to be able to even get a prosthetic or not and he Don's mother Dana Donna who's not religious was watching arier get up on his two feet and AR's mother describes that she couldn't handle the scene she couldn't handle it she turned her head away from watching her own son take his first steps and she started doing Hashem please make some distraction happen to distract this woman I can't watch idan's mother whose son will never ever walk on two feet again watch my son get up and stand I can't handle it and she says my fos went unanswered there were no distractions and she watched Donna watch arier get up on his two feet and she's cheering him on go AR Go AR you can do it Go AR you can do it and she's crying not because her son is getting up on his two feet but she's crying because what strength and what imuna it takes for a woman to look at someone else's son and to be able to cheer her on and she goes over to her and she says who are you where do you get this strength from I don't understand how you could do this okay you're you're you're sitting in your corner to cheer him on to celebrate his accomplishment while you're looking at your son in the bed how do you do this and she says to her what do you mean what do you mean mean she says to her I lost a brother in a previous war this mother ofah and they came knocking at my door and I know what it means when they come knocking at your door and I said when they came knocking at my door I am not answering the door and look barem he's alive and not only he's alive but he's with us his personality is with us his Ed is with us he's with us and yes he has this terrible injury it'll make him a better father it'll make him a better husband it'll make her a better better everything in life what's the big deal and this woman this religious woman who lit shabas candles every Friday night and Dav and and and Shak and kep yff and and everything she said she was fainting and she said I I I I I I can't even understand what you're saying and idan's mother turned to her and she said says by the way I really think you need a little bit of more strength in your amuna I see sometimes you're not so strong and she said to her I thought I was strong before I spoke to you we'll talk a little bit later about a young child who was named in this room in memory of someone who was killed in be leor leor Schnabel leor Schnabel who was named in this room for leor tarashansky who was killed in B and when I was in ER Israel a couple times ago I went to sit with his family and his father and his mother not religious people amazing people showing me videos on their phone of the unfolding catastrophe in Bay they lost a child another child was a hostage and the great grandfather Yehuda he sits me down and he looks at me in the eyes and I'm in the most non-religious neighborhood in Tel Aviv you could imagine I'm telling you we don't enough go to these places it's on us I walked into a house there was no mza that's how distant we're talking they don't hate anybody they don't they just don't know they don't know and the grandfather says to me he looks me in the eye and he says they came for the house on my right they came for the house on my left and the only thing stopping them from walking through the front door of my house was hashm bash Faith people who have every reason to be angry to reject yet somehow saw flashes of a even in the anger and even in theban and then came the unbelievable strength that had to be summoned by our soldiers by our who understood who understood very well the lessons of Jewish history that kurban is never a rejection of Amel itself it may be a catastrophe it may be a destruction of a particular context and space of the Jewish people but it's never an abandonment of am Israel itself and that as they were preparing to go into Gaza that was with them and that was with them and Jewish history was with them and Lieutenant KL maos Schwarz the commander of the IDF infantry battalion 7007 on October 28th when his soldiers were poised to invade Gaza he said to them the following shabbat shalom everyone a historic hour for everyone I don't know if we can digest this moment I don't know if we really understand the magnitude of the hour but there is a huge togetherness here the hour that the 707th Battalion goes to war since yesterday from the very early hours of the night the IDF has been fighting the enemy and others have been engaged with hundreds of enemy terrorists we're not alone and this is how I feel the Warriors of King David the makes are with us we're with morai anovich and the war ghetto Uprising Fighters there are here with us the Freedom Fighters of Israel of etel and lei and and all the fighters throughout Israel's history since we became a nation few Generations can say that they went out to fight for real to really fight for the Homeland in order to restore the honor that was a little lost on Simas Torah and we will now return it big time I try to imagine a few years from now when the younger soldiers ear will be fathers to sons and grandsons and the older ones will have grandsons and greatr Sons sitting on the couch at home and your grandchild will ask you in 2023 babies and children and adults mothers and fathers were taken and you will say yes I was there and do you know what I did I left our family and our home I abandoned work and I went to fight and he will ask you father did you really fight this thing and you will tell him yes I fought I fought this evil and then he will say and what was the end and you will say that we were Heroes and that the Lions of our Battalion defeated the enemy a sense of confidence in CL a sense of confidence in the Jewish people we react to AES with this sense of s than ever it's just mindboggling anybody who has sat with individuals involved in kirim will tell you somehow through the pain and through the assault so many are for e e for K leadership within the Jewish people but sok points out that the entire is called we're all called so in what respect is a Coen unique is a Coen special is a Coen exclusive in his identity as a leader in amra and he goes on to say that what makes Kahuna unique is that in CLA Israel leaders leaders are not meant to dominate and to control leaders are not meant to just manage and push leaders are meant to uplift and empower the role of a Cohen is not to tell all the Israeli what to do the role of the Cohen is to help every Israel discover the coin within themselves that everyone can lead that everyone can make an impact that everyone can make a difference the kohanim were divided up into various mishmar not every Coen was serving every single day in the B mikdash there was a system there was a system most of the year the Coen and his family teaching Torah serving the Jewish people maybe raising money I don't know they're doing what kohanim do getting a lottery shown but for that particular period of time the Cohen and his family would be invited to do their weeks of service in the B mikdash over the course of this Kina the M relates the 24 mishos of the Kahuna and describes the various communities that hosted these families of Kohan some exclusively kohanim some a mixture of kohanim and others and it brings to the surface the notion that in CLA Israel we do not live as individuals that simply need a context a landscape a space to park our RV our family likes to take RV trips when you get to a RV park it's not a community you the only thing that you all have in common is sewage you're not a community everybody's got their own place everybody's got their own home everybody's got their own family and other than us everybody has their own dog it's not a community we're all traveling we need a place to stop this is where we're going to stay we're not just looking for a place to get a septic system water and food and a nice Supermarket that's not why we're in this community a community in CLA Israel is a living and breathing entity it pulsates with an energy that is the result of what's invested into it and what it invests back in to the people who live there it's a product of not just its leaders it's a product of its followers and the tone that they set and the standards that they keep what is going to be acceptable in our community that's not a function of control it's a function of aspiration and ambition of what we want out of a life and out of a community what are going to be the standards and the expectations that our children are going to grow up with how are they going to relate to Haves and Have Nots to needs and wants to spirituality to material reality what does a look like in our community what does unity look like in our community when do we gather when do we unify when do we divide what's a community what is at seor and mikina describes the living breathing energy that animates a seab that animates a community and yeah a community can have especially today lots of different sub communities but at some point it has to coals around more than shopping and bagels it has to coales around a common shared vision for cla isra a vision that leaves space for diversity that leaves space for different approaches different opinions and different different mahim but a vision nonetheless a vision of growth a vision of movement one of the things that we have learned over the course of this past year is about the precious precious value and identity of communities since CLA Israel experienced theban where the entire entity of a community is overrun radiate and experience this reality and we are in tremendous Mourning communal life you imagine if you're block and pic a few went to this hotel a few went to that hotel if you went to that hotel no more minion no more Sho no more together no more you have a SIM you bring everybody everybody's all over the place so hard it's so painful communities when we were in ER Israel in October we met with the community of schlomit who was at the time staying in karion we ate lunch with them we made a with them and we met their injured security coordinator Orin and he explained how he experienced that terrible day that there are used to Red alerts here in the area they go in and out in safe rooms and continue with life but in that particular day it wasn't ending and as the security coordinator I wanted to make sure that nothing was going on outside my home but I was starting to get messages that Rockets were inting neighbor houses so we checked to make sure that everybody was okay and then we started to hear that there were actual infiltrations a few Terrors here and there at other kib and he figured that the Army would come and handle the situation but he was getting ready in case the IDF needed back back up he updated his emergency Squad he got them together he got his friends together they checked out the house that was hit by the rocket and they drove around the kibuts and as they're listening to the radio they are hearing that the situation is getting worse and worse in the surrounding Kim terrorists are going from house to house purging the houses slaughtering the entire kibuts and it was like a big wave and at 7:38 a.m. I heard the security coordinator of ashol shared that he had had an encounter with teris in pron and he said on the radio I'm hurt I'm disconnecting and aurin knew that he wasn't the head of the security group which means if he's on the radio that the head of the security group is in even bigger trouble and he knew that the security team in prian is not going to be able to stop this entire infiltration but he's responsible for the security in schom in his community and this k a different Community is under attack and of course he knew very very well that if they go and they leave this community and they go to help save the other community that leaves schlom vulnerable to attack itself an impossible Choice it's not like he could call a government person or a r or who's going to PK in this child so he wrestled with the thought of leaving the kibuts to fight for another one especially knowing that the Eris at vehicles and he decided to leave half his team in SCH leaves half the team here takes half the team there without hesitation his friends BOS and O's join him to fight in prian and they arrive in prian and they see that there's a battle between civilians and teror terrorists and they join together they attack the terrorists and members of the schom kuds security team are killed and injured in trying to save a different community in trying to save prian and at this point the community itself of schlomit they had very very little protection while they were trying to push in pran they continued to lose people and eventually the day was brought under control and during our trip we met with one of the Alm Monas one of the widows named Donna who onim T her was not attacked but the nearby Yeshua prian was attacked and her husband in aad went to go help and in doing so Abad gave his life Alem and this woman there were three Alon that we met with this woman all she could talk about all she could convey was such a fundamental desire and aspiration for CLA Israel to have immun and she said to us I was sitting right there she said to us I gave my husband to the Jewish people and if it means that there'll be AK in the Jewish people I'm prepared to accept it but if the Jewish people are going to continue to fight with each other then as far as I'm concerned he died for nothing that's a heavy heavy statement to make to 30 40 rabim who sat there feeling so small in deference to the giant of amuna sitting before us and this whole Community displaced this whole Community trying to get their world back together I believe that since then many members of schlom have been able to return and the videos of them returning are in song but this is what AM Israel is about it's not just about Sedin Israel is about communi saving communities it doesn't matter if we're okay and we need our defenses to protect us them over there they need us more it's an unbelievable Act of M nefes and it really has to make us think about the values of that Community what did it mean to live in that community that those guys could make such a decision such an irrational operationally distorted decision what were the values of that Community how were they raising their children in terms of priorities to choose to go give their lives for someone else and it's not just like when a soldier is recruited this is your job this is your calling this is what we need you to do now they had something else to do this was their job their job was to protect their as far as they're concerned you know what that means in in that means that I can make KES for you even though I was already Ying KES because if you haven't heard Kish yet I haven't fully heard KES yet so I'm still obligated in KES I I made KES it doesn't matter you didn't make Kish how many Jews CL Israel haven't made KES and we stand there on shabus and we say to ourselves oh you know we made Kish with our eyes were closed we thought about the meaning of the words we made kidish we didn't make Kish we made some Kish if there's a Jew on this planet that didn't make Kish Friday night our Kish isn't finished are part of our world would we sacrifice something in pic New Jersey to go save Jews in CLA would we sacrifice auso one night a week in pic New Jersey such a small tiny sacrifice to go help Jews in Rutherford I'm not talking about to go learn with people to go help people who have nothing who are not connected do we feel that Aras do our children feel that AAS or are we so obsessed with creating the perfect and pristine religious experience for ourselves and our families that we see any opportunity to embrace the other as a compromise to the purity of what we're trying to bring are we so soft are we so defenseless are we so do we have such a lack of confidence in our homes and in our community that we can't open up to what it means to have another community would we they sent their their husbands to die for another Community would would we send ours to learn or ours to be whether you like it or not we're the kohanim of the Jewish people we're the ones that have the background and the learning and the foundation and the commitment with the kohanim of the Jewish people you know what our job is our job is is to help every Jew see the coin within themselves not to sit in the B mikdash all year round kohanim didn't sit in the B all year round they were with the people was with the people Shalom shom he walked the streets he talked to people he embraced people he hugged people he was with people he didn't isolate himself in the mikdash he saw it as a source of energy in order order to be able to bring that reality to the larger Jewish people to the larger amra can we create a reality that is welcoming and loving and embracing to other communities we're the Kohan it's on us R salv Points out in this Keno in terms of the world of the kohanim we know that it was the kohanim who had the Last Stand in protecting the mikdash and Sal points out that the walls were breached onab and now we're holding by Tish how long is that three weeks anyone who's ever had this to be Ines knows how long does it take to walk from the walls of the Old City to the cotel how long 20 minutes 15 minutes depends if you stop to give sadaka depends how many people you see it depends if you know you're you have to detour because of the uh elevator that's supposed to be ready in 293 depends where but 10 15 minutes three weeks three weeks to beat a bunch of rabbis who' taken up arms to fight for the mikem three weeks it took them to get from shfo to the kotel to the harabas three weeks writes the r that the kohanim fought like you couldn't imagine there's a fighting spirit in every Jew and there's a fighting spirit in every Jew who fights for amra and there's a special fighting Spirit when that fight emanates also from being anchored in the world of Torah RAB mosha Taran of the gush put out an incredibly inspiring book of his messages to the Yeshiva over the course of the war and in it he describes what it was like to lose two soldiers who were friends who were kusas many of us have seen the picture of them learning together David Schwarz and Yakir hexter David schwarz's parents were native born Israelis Yakir hexter parents made Aliah from the United States and they were learning together doid had a pure beautiful smile it never left his face he radiated happiness and goodness a quied understated leadership wasn't aggressive or controlling assumed responsibility a truth Seeker intellectually curious it inspired him to look at other things he got into and for those who spent any time inat that's not exactly their exact that's not exactly their their uh defining approach and yet we take Ms from everybody from every stream and rabaran writes that because of David's tenacity and interest and passion they brought a he was deeply spiritual Yakir hexter very driven held himself to very high standards enjoyed learning missim humble about his achievements extremely tolerant of anyone who couldn't match his expectations extremely modest inconspicuous Charming an artist an original thinker and he writes that it's amazing because you look at these two kids and you see none of the qualities that you would expect if the United States Marines were walking into a Bas Med saying we want to recruit they'd have a hard time finding an Alvin maybe they could find a Joe they'd have a hard time finding a you know finding a who are these guys sitting and learning so Ze so sweet so precious so soft and for thousands of years our children were in forced he wres to undergo this metamorphosis to brave soldiers and there is a price to pay you for this historical privilege and he writes what it's like as a rebi you have to have for rabim and moros is astronomical and the lack of Co that we give them is reprehensible believe me most of them could be doing other things with their life at paymore and don't come along with WhatsApp groups full of parents who are telling them what to do most of them could be doing things in life that aren't second guested every 20 seconds and yet they choose to do this and it's the greatest of our great to choose to do this every year in this sh we celebrate a graduation Kish where we celebrate all the accomplishments of all of our children in the sh everyone and everyone's going to make a contribution and everyone's special and everyone has something to to give to the Jewish people and to the world but we always make special mention of those who are going into clay kodesh of the sacrifices that they are going to make it's a privilege your kid comes to you and says I need a little bit more financial help so I could get through smik or a master's in education you should go home and say the entire saer out of and that he gave you that gift and question what you've done in your life to deserve it and hand them every penny you can I think my parents are here and hand them every penny you can it's a gift to be a teacher and the love and the respect and the commitment that they have is unbelievable my kids they go back to their rabam and their teachers years after they've left them for AA for understanding mostly of had to deal with their father it's an unbelievable gift and he says as a rebi what it's like to to see to to know their Kos my sons Rim know his Kos in a way that I don't I know him but they know his potential in learning and his potential in our in a way that I don't and my daughters as well you know their cus you know what they could be you know what they could give you know what they could contribute you're you're one of their parents and to live with that understanding and that knowledge and then to live with the reality that it was cut short in service of am Isel in sacrifice of am Israel of ER is is very prideful and very painful at the same time to feel that sense of this is who they are but also to know what they're not going to end up being able to contribute and able to be and he writes that their death is even more painful because the bond of friendship that they add during their lifetime which started in high school into Yeshiva army training officer training they sered together until their death locked in a friendship in Aus thear inness there is no life without friendship without connection that's what infuses our lives with such a sense of meaning and such a sense of of connectivity he [Music] quotes after the battle with hasem says back to David Shon we lost our best we sacrificed so many it's on us to continue that Legacy of kahuna to see the potential in everyone to embrace our mandate to make our community a place that stands as something special as something unique our paic clion community and our larger Community today we're we're with our our larger Community a larger Orthodox Community shouldn't be a place that's intimidating shouldn't be a place that has barriers of Entry should be a place that anyone could walk into and feel embraced and feel special and feel loved unconditionally to be part of Amis h for e e e this is a Kina that expresses your Ani's intense mourning over the loss of yosio Yos comes on to the scene at only eight years old and we're told that for 18 years even CSA for Torah like a running the Jewish people finds a Torah open to the to that there is a mandate for the king of the Jewish people to create this Renaissance of growth and liud and he begins a Chua movement says the a Chua movement where there was a revolution of Torah growth that was unseen since the days of Moser Rabin and then it looked good it looked like the Jewish people's trajectory would end up much more towards a Redemptive reality and then things go wrong throughout Tanakh the Jewish people have always been situated and certainly till today between a power in the north and a power in the South and the power in the South wanted to wage war with the power in the north and in order to do that he wanted to par wanted to cross through ER Israel and he sends message to yoshio we're coming through your country Yos believes that this is not uh this is not for us because the Torah says that when clly is doing the right thing even a sword won't pass through our country even a sword of peace even if you're not going to wage war in our country yo tells him you don't understand yoshio it's not as good as you think it is behind closed doors people are still struggling people are still not where we need them to be and so he tells Yos let them through yosio ignores them ignores him decides not to parro invades Israel and uh ultimately yoshio is killed and this set the stage forb this Kina explains the r one of the reasons why we focus on this Kina is because over the course of kenos we are discussing the and we are lamenting and we are crying for the macro losses of the Jewish people for communities for for and as we know well it is so so easy when you are focused on the masses to lose sight of the individuals soon after October 7th at the OU we were having a conversation a conversation was taking place between RAB Hower and raban ra Frankl ra ra Frankle is the mother of one of the three boys who were kidnapped and murdered that led to the previous Gaza War believe that happened 10 years ago and one of the things that ra Frankl who I had the opportunity to spend the shabas with a number of years ago a remarkable remarkable woman of Faith an incredible teacher of Torah one of the things that she shared with us was that that there are so many losses on October 7th that people will feel the AUM will feel like their children their brothers their parents they're just one of October 7th and they'll recede their memory will recede into this larger iconic tragic reality of the Jewish people the Holocaust and inspired by that started a program run by a very close friend Rabbi Moen called Yad not together we'll win together forever and we started a program where the goal is we're focused on soldiers others are focusing on others every single soldier lost has a home in a community that why that AR is for him or for her every Soldier loss has a group of people that if you stop them in the street and they say do you know the names of anyone who was killed in the war on October 7th and they'll say yes I do every Soldier has a community that when they walk into the for Shak for a Mitzvah or a graduation for a kidish or a v they see facing them one person one person and for our we have had the great to embrace the memory and the legacy of an incredibly Brave young man Hal Tish is also called a moed we also try to see the points of Mo means connection the connection Community we also try to see the moid in Tish the connection and every Mo has a hollow and it has been such a to think about him to learn for him to doed for him to connect to him and is such a this Tish of for our community to host his parents and his siblings here in this room people who gave their everything gave their everything for us for the Jewish people for Med Israel by it's a great great privilege in for me to ask our friend Hal's father to share with us on his Yosh the story in the legacy of his son Hal you hearing R speaks I'm a little bit regretting not letting him do the tell the story it would have been a much better story probably longer but better I just want to tell the U the story of how what we went through on October 7th on S and a little bit about the um the bottle which in which Hal and his friend was and I want to uh emphasize the uh heroism of of them of all the soldiers in his uh unit and his friends from other units and his neighbors in in the on the morning of sim and where we living we didn't hear any of the sirens uh we didn't know nothing anything is happening in the south at some point uh members of the yeshu uh come to tell us that we they opened the uh shelter filters because there is a war in in Gaza and only then we find out that there is a war and that Hal and we knew that halel is um in a post near kib sufa an outpost in near kuta and um we try to call him to see uh what happen if if he's fine and what what's the what's the story again as Rea said we didn't think much of it it's uh we used to have sirens and red alerts and that's there is and um Terrorist on the fence it was already a a usual thing we it happened a lot and it didn't answer and so we waited waited couple more hours to see if there is any news but uh there will no news we start looking at the website to see the news to see what's going on and and we understood that there is a much much uh bigger fight than we thought and there is a chance that something bad happened and we tried all we could soever the only thing we knew that there is some of the friends that are wounded and already evacuated to a Soka Hospital in Beva on Monday on Sunday um after trying to get information from every person we knew any anyone who could help I decided to send uh an WhatsApp message to the group of the parents of his friend with his friends that we had before and to ask if any of his friends that are wounded and already evacuated knows anything about HAL and a couple hours later one of his again Brave friends um had the courage to call us and tell us that Hal was killed during the battle he didn't know um where is Al now but he knows that t was killed he saw him and that he's sure that t is already killed and so at this point we only we only waited for the IDF to come and tell us that we that Hal is that we have a body to to bury because there is a chance he was kidnapped and that happened only on Monday evening that uh the IDF had came came and gave us the official notice that Al was killed and that we have the body and we we will have um L they couldn't tell us when because they had it was big big uh Bagan in in Israel at this time they didn't know whether there there were going to be time to identify him they have a lot whole process on on how to identify the body and make sure there is no mistakes and it takes time and they had a lot of soldiers and citizens to ENT identify so you couldn't tell us when the L going to be U but fortunately they uh since uh we want to bury him in karion in gion and they had already two levot that was going to be there they rushed thing up and they we were able to have Lev on Wednesday which was really fast that's that's a very short version of this um couple days waiting for the uh for on the morning of sim and friends were um in um sufa Outpost it's right next to the sufak kibuts Kut and very close to the border of G the where GL said in in 630 they had sirens and as the procedure says they need to leave whatever they do and go into the safe room and this is what they did all this all the soldiers in the Outpost um and when when it happens they just take their weapon and run to the safe uh safe room they don't take any uh other equipment with them and after doing that couple minutes they heard that there is an invasion a foot Invasion from the commander outside of the Outpost and the orders were to go back to the rooms and get ready for a for a battle for a battle for a fight uh Outside The Outpost protecting the Kim around them but it was uh but the terrorist came really fast and they didn't get a chance to leave The Outpost and the terrorists get to The Outpost before they they were able to go out so the most of the battle was inside The Outpost um Al Hal's uh direct Commander called him told him Hal come with me and a few other soldiers Hal was the U I'm not sure how to translate he was the naat and kod he was at the front of the lines with his commanders and so he was the first um to go with the commander they got on they got the all their equipment and ran to the um front gate of The Outpost from there they tried to uh shoot back at the terrorist and uh they wanted the goal was to go out and protect the kibuts but the Outpost they had they were it was Sim so there weren't a lot of uh Soldier over there combat soldiers they were about 20 10 from his unit and 10 from a different unit and the Outpost was surrounded by uh terrorists The Outpost worldall is um it's not so big but it's surrounded by um concrete walls uh and the terrorist used grenades and uh explosive and thr it over the uh over the walls and these walls also had a small um hole at the bottom from which the uh terrorists put their rifles in and just shoot inside uh inside the um The Outpost at some point what what when they understood they wouldn't be able to fight them because they don't see who they're fighting with they decided to go back into the safe room and fight from there and try and fight from there and it's also what the uh where all the wounded soldiers uh went into and so everybody was going into the safe room halel and the two his friend decided to stay outside and fight and guard the safe room um they stood uh at the entrance of the uh safe room and shoot back at the any any terrorist they saw and at some point halel was shot and and killed on the spot and the other the two other friends decided that uh to go back inside and try keep fighting from inside Hal was with another friend of his his name was schline he's fromat and he he tried schlom tried to pull Hal inside after he was shot and he was shot in his hand and was wounded it's another trying to tell stories of How brave they were that schom tried to to save Al was killed he saw that he just tried to bring his body back into the uh safe room so they won't take him and he was sh in his hand so they decided not to do that and two of Hal's friend from the from the other unit inside one of the rooms and they were wounded so they took the their their equipment and left the safe room and and went to help them and actually saving some of them and unfortunately they weren't be able to come back and was killed with the uh with the other uh with the other soldier that that they were trying to save their name was Amit most and ofir Melman Brave uh soldiers [Music] and after the after October 7th couple a couple of months I think we we've joined the spouses or uh brothers that the main goal is to call for a for the government to to win and not give up and but being there and hearing time and time again about soldiers and civilians or soldiers that are uh not that already uh finish the Army and hearing their stories and their bravery and their heroism give us strength give us the um the the little bit of of um from all this uh situation have uh Soldier has a story a lot and a lot of stories which are I can't I can't understand how this uh there are kids 20 21 18 19 that did stuff that uh I I I don't understand where they had this strengths and courage to do um I'm sure like rabic GL said told couple stories there are a lot of stories that you can hear and um learn from and how these kids kids soldiers and weren't thinking about themselves or about uh their well-being and took risks in order to save their friends in order to save the settlements theim the Kim they were protecting and it's it's just amazing during the Shiva of valel we learned a lot about him as also said you always um you don't really know your son or your spous you hear the stories you know him from one side but you can learn more about him when you hear it from others from his uh friends and from his um teachers rabbis little with our oldest was 21 for he had a big heart and he love to help everyone especially his friends and teachers we heard stories from from his friends were the same how fun he was and how we loved his friends and want to wanted to help them my one of the teachers told us that Hal was before studied at a special place called The babika which is a place for kids that uh are full of life but uh having a hard time sitting and learning it's place where they have other things to do there rather than just sitting all day and dining all was um Into Horses it was uh horse instructor he learned how to train horses and but he also had a very good hands with wood and he did a lot of uh stuff and they have over there they have a wood shop which you know they have they can uh Express themselves there also and this one of the teachers said that he came One Night in the middle of the night and he is seeing a l working on some something and he asked about what are you doing here so late so said I don't have time tomorrow is the end of the year but and I want to make something for the for my teacher so he gave him he made a a gift for his teacher and so we ask and we also ask his friends anything that he did we don't have a lot of stuff that he did they said that whatever he did he gave to his friends one friend said he gave me something and told me here this is for your girlfriend everything he did he did with all his heart and uh his power he did the best he could after the After High School he did the schn a year service in a farm also in B aten he had a he was a shord and the purpose of being a Sherer in B then is one of the purposes is to save the land from the Arabs that tries to uh take it but he was there uh working really hard it was the only over there he was working very really hard and doing his best and when he when he joined the army he told he told us that it's easy because after the year that he he had in the it was better he sleeps better he has more food he had a really uh um a lot of time people asks us about um what's give us strength what give us comfort and as you heard from RE glad the stories on October 7th are horrific and the um one of the things that will really um give us thanks is to know that Hal had the chance to fight back had the chance to uh to help his friends to be there and to uh to fight back to shoot at the the uh terrorist that was trying to kill him and and his friends a lot of people on October 7th were killed without the option without the uh ability to fight back or even see who's shooting them who's killing them and we really we really we were really afraid that uh at first that he didn't get a chance that they they were killed in their beds or something like that and also that uh their death wasn't meaningful words meaning were meaning was meaningful and not just uh with no uh purpose I spoke yesterday I said something about the guua about the sons the soldiers now in Israel seeing the families of the soldiers that were killed the soldiers that are still fighting fighting for Israel and for the Jewish people um it's also a when we see the uh sacrifice that every Soldier and his family right now that are still fighting or wounded or or killed we know that we are in a in an in an historical moment that will be remembered and will be uh part of of our nation's me memory for a long time like we have like and yum and 48 everything we might not see it now but because we're in it but hopefully from this very low point of of where we are we will grow even higher than where we were K Alf for K gim points throughout tanak where there are promises made to the Jewish people promises that are unique to am Israel promises to ABR and yob Promises to Moser renu and Beyond promises that Jewish history will follow patterns and trajectories that allow for CLA Israel to be able to live the ideals of Torah and mitzvos to be able to repres present embody and teach what it means to be aim to the larger World AO where did all of these opportunities go Israel the state of Israel is a profound gift of our historical era it's a precious precious treasure that we are privileged to carry the responsibility for both in its inherent value to our generation when it means that we can go there what it means that we could live there as well as its significance situated in historical context and what it represents in the unfolding Redemption of the Jewish people and sitting here we believe that our beloved state of Israel stands as an imperfect yet extraordinary expression of asem regardless of how you relate to its Messianic Dimensions we certainly recognize that if this Kino is being written today that one of the Coes of our generation one of the promises that we are living of our generation is the reality that we possess this incredible gift this opportunity of the state of Israel the displacement of families which is so much of part of the pain of theban that we are experiencing today is also a loss it may not be always a loss of life but it's a loss of living it's a loss of stability when we were in uh ER Isel staying in one of the hotels where there were many many families I think one of the saddest sites that I saw were families that they had put on the door of their hotel room the mishak sign from their home cuz this hotel room was their home then you get into the elevators with like 20 of these little kids that have never been in a hotel in their life every trip to the seventh floor involved them pushing every single button up the elevator down the elevator up the elevator down the elevator this is their activity this is their school they used to roaming free and running in the cities in the Kim of the North and the South Kusa and Isel is established in two ways kadus is established through Kush through conquest and kadus is established through kuk through settlement and one would imagine that the force of kush represents a more powerful and more permanent presence of kadat it's with Force it's with power where is but the truth is that the Kad was a kadha that the kadha infused into ER Isel as a result of the conquest was a kadua that ultimately was able to be expelled when the enemies of CLA Israel came and they conquered the land themselves they were able to extract that kadha by the very same mechanism that we and confused it with kadush and so therefore the years post the Babylonian exile were not years where there were it was still is it's still the promised land of the Jewish people the ra although this is subject to a big always had but the Kad of kush it comes with Kush it goes with Kush but says the gimar when Ezra andya called the Jewish people home when erra and neya travel the communities of Buel and they say the time has come we're going back to ER Israel not in as conquerors but as settlers we're going to settle the land we're going to build the communities we're going to build institutions and homes and families come we're going back we're going back to Isel Kad the second kadus the Kad ofak the kadha of settlement is Kad that kadha never leaves and so when the enemies of the Jewish people managed to expel CLA Israel the second time they did not sever the radiating because what it means to live and to farm and to work and to learn and to be within the homes of the community of arat Israel that itself has such a sense of permanence has such a sense of infusion of what it means to create a connection between CLA Israel and erit Israel and our vehicle in our generation through Med Israel we have many letters that were left by some of the soldiers who died Al KES and many of them describe such a unique perspective many of them describe a mindset that's not your typical mindset of war that there sense of purpose and of mission may be to at some level to face and conquer the enemy but they understand they understand stand what they're fighting for not just what they're fighting against and they had such a sense of such a sense of responsibility for theim for the Kim for the cities for the citizens that were behind them and they have such a sense of History one of the letters that we have from a soldier reads who teaches children how to write such a letter what a special State we have I feel a sense of I feel a sense of privilege that I'm not just about kush I'm not just about Conquest I'm about Conquest for settlement I'm about Conquest for our state I feel that I am part of History that's being written right now A 23y old boy wrote these words thank you dear parents that you raised me not just like we raise our children for the MIT of shabas and at a wash properly and say BR andas and what's a Ben yo and daving and when do you stand up and when do you sit down and all the of the nine days if someone said let's have some classes on that's what they mean tell us how do we Inspire our children why do you want to inspire your children maybe leave them uninspired no we need them inspired so that they'll want to learn T and they'll want to do mitz and they want to do everything can any of us imagine can any of us remember a single moment where as part of the Corpus of our of our children we taught them we taught them hey I want you to know that if it ever came to it I want you to know that if ever if you ever ever encountered that moment I want you to know what it means not just to live to be a Jew but to die as a Jew Al that you brought me up not just with KES you brought me up with and to love the land to love the land to feel that land is something worth dying for to hold on to another two acres to hold on to another yes all of this is in your Merit and it belongs to you you you glorious family of the state of Israel I love you so much I'm is Kino y gim for for theban is depicted in AR sh as something that begins at the very externals of our existence and Men proceeds inwards Galia the assassination of leadership the surrounding of the walls are breached and then Tish the mikash is set Ablaze the destruction is something that moves progressively inwards towards the epicenter of our communal and our religious existence the heart of our world and this Kina is about those final moments of penetration into the sanctuary and sanctity of amra the SAR here is Titus historically but not mentioned by name because thear has been many many different people over the course of Jewish history and this year perhaps more than any other the notion that the enemies of am Israel are not Somewhere Out There they're not something that's happening Beyond us but that the enemies of the Jewish people were able to puncture the surrounding defenses and make their way into the most inner protected spaces of am Israel the many many stories of people holding the handle of a safe room with every ounce of energy and strength they have in their body for hours and hours and hours protecting that inner sanctum holding the precious Souls of their family of their friends of the Jewish people every time one of these terrible terrorists entered a house entered a safe room entered a base entered the state of Israel every time that's the enemies of in The KES of theik and the question is posed by many how is it possible that a building that did not just stand as a material edifice in this world but a building that stood capable of containing and manifesting the presence of a of the infinite we're not allowed to walk into the Kash under penalty of death at all throughout the entire year one man once a year for a few minutes can walk into this space and all the preparation he has to prepare he has to know the aod we have a backup every step that he takes is perfectly choreographed to make sure it is in alignment with the maximum expression of the spiritual capacity of that space to connect to he's our Emissary he embodies the Jewish people he carries the Jewish people beim these are the moments that we think about K it didn't even occupy physical space the gar tells us if you were to measure the outside area and you were to measure the kashim area you would end up with a calculus that does not actually represent the existence of this space and yet Russia he could just walk right in the enemies of the Jewish people could just walk right in and the answer is as the explains regarding Theos that I learned from one of my dear R RAB writes how is it that mosu breaks the lcos what happened to Sheamus you know come the luos the L that's not like a shabos maybe if we put it in a plastic bag in a Seasons not Seasons anymore but we put it in a bag we put it in the G maybe not have to bury it sometimes you're at a levia some guy walks up everyone's crying everyone's you know in morning and you know you got one of these people a little socially off and picks up two bags and starts dumping hundreds of pieces of paper and books on the okay there's a way to do it with with cover a is able to just break the L the says no because once CLA Isel had distanced their connection to the ronom Theos no longer contained the kadus and once the kadus is gone then it's just a physical item and the same is true with the B mikdash that the Jewish people had comported themselves in such a way that they were no longer worthy of hosting's presence in the begins with his presence within us and if we are carrying ourselves in such a manner that it is incompatible with the presence of a then there is noem in the bdash and now it's just a building and if it's a building anybody could walk in and anybody could throw it down and we know that the behavior of the Jewish people during these times was incredibly compromised but the world of when walks in says the G there were nightsiders there were sh there were M WhatsApp groups there wasi there was the amount of lul love saes the amount of uh chauffer blowings the amount of tons of Mitzvah Kos restaurants it was you didn't have to go to men for a fancy kosher restaurant you had one right there in y you could you could go anywhere Torah mitzvos you could eat koser you could hundreds of mikos everything the for everything for Tish beach chairs for everything anything you could possibly [Music] imagine so if that was the Jewish people in Bay sheni then why did we lose the mikdash says the gar because we treated each other even just in our mindset we treated each other with and lest you think that Jew says the you want to know what the unraveling of the Jewish Community looks like it's the world this was an era of tremendous Torah just so we understand what was going on here with all du respect to the all Torah apps which are amazing to Wu Torah which is amazing Raba was giving Shear RAB AA was giving Shear not shim about Raba right and I think he gave sheer he didn't even have the Endor in makus that's really popular about RAB he was teaching everything else he wasn't yet even the internal Optimist that we could give good drush you could go here Shear from RAB AKA from Zak unbelievable and yet because of does not mean a lack of uniformed thinking or a lack of uniformed living sin means hatred of the Hearts how do you know what's in people's heart you listen to what they say and you look at what they do and it's always been challenging in the Jewish people to create spaces of mutual respect and coexistence we think differently we have different approaches to things but there's no question that in the months and in the weeks leading up to this past suus that the situation had spiraled completely out of control the rhetoric the vitriol the absolute inability to provide any space for different approaches to life reached a climax of epic proportions and between judicial controversies yum Kipper controversies all of the sudden enemies men juw one of my worst moments of October 7th was when we had to get up in shul and announced to everyone that violence had broken out in Israel and we were going to say to Hillen and to find out afterwards that my more generalized depiction of what had happened had meant that some people assumed that the violence I was referring to was between Jews that we should even be in such a context that that's a Hava the gamar tells the story of kamsa barsa the story of a host who was having a party and he told his servant I want you to invite cel and the servant this is before you know e invitations in which case this happens much more often actually now just start the email address and before you know it you invited everyone you ever dated to your wedding so he goes and he confuses what his instructions were and he ends up inviting the wrong person he ends up inviting baramu baram comes the host doesn't want to let him stay day big fight and the gar says because of Kam and bar you know what happened and the story unfolds all the details he goes he tells the Romans that the Jews they're not really loyal as a result this sets into Kam is sitting in his house he never went anywhere he's the one that's just sitting there wondering why there's a wedding at the Brightstone that he wasn't invited to he didn't do anything wrong he's just sitting there he's like okay I know bars is the one who shows up and he goes through the whole thing and he reports the Jews and he's a what did wrong says the I think one of the most sistic points about and maybe I've shared it in the past I probably have but it Bears repeating and that is that the reason why the B was destroyed because of Kam is because the Rel relationship between the host and kamsa was such that it was exclusionary to barsama Kam represented the kamama represented the positive relationship that the oost add with him but what does it mean that I'm with you it means that we are not with them and says the maharal a long time ago says the maharal that when we we create communities ideological communities physical communities clicks and the energy of that bond is that we're us and we're not them it's not just how you treat them that for sure is sin that's obvious it's even in the love you express to the you have that's also because the more you reinforce the bonds of connection as an exclusionary identity to other Jews the more you widen the rift among CLA Israel between all of us it's not okay for there to be an us and a them it's okay to have a difference of opinion it's okay to express a difference of opinion it's okay to have different standards and different realities it's not okay that we're a kamsa and they're a bar kamsa they're not us it's not okay and it is that type of unraveling and breakdown of clais that leaves us susceptible and vulnerable and it is a recorded Undisputed fact that some of the hostages who came back reported being told by terrorists in Gaza that they were hyperaware of the internal strife and Discord that was going on in Israel at the highest levels and the deepest levels and that they recognized that as an opportune moment you could say it'sa you could say it's any but the reality is when we create is we create a for when we create is when we're one people when we're worthy of then when our enemies come banging they don't encounter a building devoid of the sanctity of the Jewish people they encounter a unified Nation they encounter a people who are together when Titus walked into the B mikdash the gar tells us the Kim were hugging and crying and thear famously asks that's strange the gar says that the Ken were miraculous the cherubs the children in the on top of the yurin they were miraculous sometimes they faced away from each other sometimes they faced towards each other the gumar says what's what when we do the right thing they face each other when we don't do the right thing they face away from each other walking into the to destroy it one would presume is a moment of we're susceptible to this because we're not where we should be and where we could be and where we want to be so why the creen facing each other why aren't they facing apart and there are many answers to this question and we've shared many of them but I want to suggest this year a different answer that maybe the Kim don't just representes in clel maybe they represent these two children maybe they represent CLA Israel themselves and that we all know that when the moment of hban comes that's when everybody's hugging and crying on each other's shoulder there is a Unity that comes from having to face a common enemy but it's not just a pragmatic utilitarian Unity it's an awakened family Unity I was reading a book I think I mentioned it in SCH that talks about the uniqueness of the state of Israel and he was describing the biker gets off the bike the biker screaming the bus driver screaming you were wrong and you you shouldn't have been in this lay no you you turned without signaling just screaming and yelling and screaming and yelling and then everyone on the bus gets into it and then everyone who's on the street gets into it and before you know it there's a whole exciting you know everybody's yelling and everybody's screaming and everybody gets it out of their system and then the bus driver gets ready to get back on the bus and the biker says hey could you tell me how to get to kir he's like yeah sure you take this road to this highway then you get off here then you go there he's like watch and nothing ever happened nothing ever happened they were ready to rip each other out off and nothing happened that's what's awakened in CLA Israel don't mistake it don't mistake it for just a reactive Unity it's real it's there we're a family we love each other we care about each other we don't care how we practice and what we do deep down we know this deep down we all stood together at seni together we get distracted we we we we hunker down we get overly passionate and we handle it terribly but if we view the war as simply an exceptional moment yeah yeah everybody could get together when there's a war but now now we've gotten used to it and so now the period begins again that's not CLA is it it awakens something real it wasn't just I felt bad for you it's for a moment What mattered most is that we're a family and that is what CL Isel needs to work on AAS Isel loving other Jews Jews that are not like us Jews that we disagree with knowing how to disagree with respect and with dignity how we talk about others who we don't agree with are they a Bara are they them or are they us and even in a family not everybody agrees this Kina is also one of the earliest texts that we have identifying the cotel as part of harabas Titus may have destroyed the but he was not able to bring the entire building down and the reason for that is because the never left why did the never leave because we were bad but we weren't that bad no the never left because there's a piece of us a very very deep inner piece of us that is worthy of we're not starting from nowhere and the question is when you look at that kotel Amari do you see the end of the previous era or do you see the beginning of the next one do you look at it and say ah this is destruction or do you say this where I'm going to make a bar mitvah to build the next Stone to build the next generation of the Jewish people and we live in an era where we are both it's a we tear our shirt when we see the cotel but then as we walk a little closer we feel such pride and such such such a gift a chance to connect in such a deep way and then you know what happens it's not spiritual what happens next is we see people people we haven't seen or people we do see but we don't talk to but now we're going to talk to them cuz we're at the cotel it awakens within CL and it helps us recognize that there are opportunities to be together the soldiers report that in their ranks none of this matters there's no division nobody cares you for judicial reform you're against judicial reform you like shabas you don't like shabas you want the train you don't want the train da da da da da da da it's not cuz they're dealing with a bigger enemy it's because they're dealing with a bigger purpose it's because they're living Amel and we're living schedules and so they understand they young impressionable kids understand that what it means to fight for cl Isel is to fight together and you've seen the hash that comes in such a reality situs andin and shabis and Tor and how many soldiers have been turned on to yish kite because they're in a space where no one's trying to force them to do it but we're all just bead we're all just together why can't we replicate that all over the world why does it need a foxhole if we want to prevent the we have to work on our Bim the way we work on our Bim is to go even deeper than Bim and to find those points of connection those feelings and aspirations of AAS is and to bring the Jewish people back together kot for for K Al is a Kino that describes the execution of theug malus the teachers of Torah whose entire life was consumed with advancing Amel CLA Isel in so many different ways communal leaders Torah leaders Scholars and I want to just contribute one Insight here then we'll recite this Kina together that has to do with how the Kina describes the notion of dying Al kesem gel R these are heart-wrenching stories the Romans wrapping him in a Torah that he would learn setting it a fire prolonging the pain the Declaration that he made makes in the you can destroy the parchment you can destroy the context you can't destroy the meaning and the purpose and the impact of Torah you can't destroy the values of Torah you can't destroy the OS of Torah there were a number of there are a number of yesos that have lost proportionally extremely high numbers of talim and the heads of one of those yesos raviga lern shared a Insight with regards to the whole concept of dying Al kesem he said that generally when we talk about the soldiers that give their lives we use the word noel now fou which means they fell in battle he doesn't like this word and he writes the following those who fall for for is for is we don't call them no we don't call them people who fall those who fight for our people who fight for what we stand for they are for eternity they are connected to a at the highest levels and with regards to our perspective we would never relate to them in any way with the characterization that they have in some way Fallen they stand and they don't just stand in a static anchoring manner they they they ascend yes so he writes that when you talk about a person who's Fallen it sounds like they've finished like they were they were standing and now they've fallen and so something is over and these people did not finish he who gives his life for the building of Jerusalem for the building of the Jewish people who don't call them no don't say he went up we're the ones on the ground we're the ones with the terrestrial reality of this world trying to navigate all of its vicisitudes and challenges and opportunities they're no longer in that space they're not deeper down their goof may be but their soul who they are what they represent what they mean for the future of the Jewish people these are people who go up and that's what we we talk about Theus an era of Jewish history where the Jewish people fought they fought with Torah and they fought militarily they fought in the battles of Barba in the revolts in the attempts to push the enemies of the Jewish people off but they didn't fall they were e for e then in the course of his two children were taken captive and they both ended up in the same tunnel and this captor said to the other captor I have an e that is the most beautiful e in the world I have a maid servant that's the most beautiful let's make them together and we'll split The Offspring and they put them in a room each one sat in a corner and one of them said I am a son of I'm going to be in this compromising situation of abuse and the girl said I am a precious princess of the Jewish people and and I should be violated in such a terrible way and they cried the entire night when the Sun finally came up he say said they look at each other from the two corners and they begin to recognize that they are in fact siblings and they fell on each other and they cried out in crying until they lost their lives these I Cry without question one of the most horrific and awful parts of this year is the notion that's still remaining in captivity is I believe the most recent number is 111 precious Jewish Souls precious Souls part of Israel is one of the aspects of this whole ordeal that makes it impossible to comprehend the world's I can't even use the word ethical standing the fact that this has been allowed to go on the fact that I was just talking to somebody about this that it's totally and completely push it to the world that one Jewish hostage is not worth one Palestinian hostage Posh it POS it Posh it POS it that the conversation and the negotiation begins here the only question is do we have to give hundreds or thousands or what P it nobody nobody would imagine in a million years the conditions are unbelievable anyone who has met some of the individuals who are either rescued or transferred back after the first opportunity to get some of the hostages back knows that the stories and the experiences are are heart-wrenching and the Le of assault if anything has been sanitized in its public description in order to try to protect on some level the people who are still there I want to share with you the reflections from a young woman who got out after 55 days of captivity sapir Cohen sapir Cohen's story began before her captivity she had a very unsettling premonition that something bad was going to happen she was just very unsettled and this letter her to seek medical advice she went to doctors what's wrong with me and nothing conclusive could be figured out they couldn't find anything wrong with her feeling very uneasy she decided that for the first time in her life she's going to turn to prayer to and she had just for some reason on her Instagram received a post that wrote that this this is a particular parac to him if you say this every day it'll be good for you you'll feel good and she decided that she was going to take upon herself to say it for 30 days but what was strange is that the par of to Hill him although once you hear what pericet is you'll understand why it's sitting on Instagram the peric of dilim is a peric that has nothing to do with recovery from illness it's not a peric we really say to recover from illness it's the peric of Lei it's actually a peric about war but she figured this is the peric that I found it's Ash this is the one that I'll say she explained that she repeated this each and every day the 30th day the end of her commitment was October 7th sapir and her boyfriend Sasha had plan to visit her parents in kibutz near o Sasha was very hesitant to go and sapira convinced him to go and on chabas morning they were awakened by the sound of rockets The Barrage was so intense that they couldn't make it to a shelter and instead they laay down in the house near a wall hoping for safety but then through text they received terrifying messages that the terrorists were in b a nearby Village the situation grew more dire with another message prompting Sasha to urge sapir to remain very very silent and that they should eye under a blanket under a bed and as the terrorists entered the kibuts and Chaos ensued the sounds of explosions and screams filled the air and they knew that it was only a matter of time before they were discovered and when the terrorists finally reached their home and they broke in and sapir heard Sasha scream as he was being beaten and she herself was captured and placed on a bike with two terrorists and driven to Gaza terrified without any understanding of what was happening around her she explains that when she got to Gaza she was paraded in front of a crowd of thousands of people a crowd that cheered the terrorists as they were beating her and that ultimately the terrorists decided that she was worth more alive than dead and so they sped her off from this Central Square and she spent the first month of captivity in a home and the second month in the tunnels and despite this she felt that there were Miracles that happened to her daily and one of the most significant Miracles was her realization that she felt that she was meant to be there and she explained that because she had been saying this par toim for 30 days she had learned it by heart and so she sat in this tunnel and she was able to pray every day AA that let's be honest stands between us and the door starting r maybe if I time my minion schedule right I can be in the right minion and never have to say and yet for her this was her anchor she explained that she met a terrified 16-year-old hostage and took responsibility to care for her that she had an ability to remain positive and even sometimes make light of their situation and bring Comfort to the girl and one of the terrorists even told her that they were lighting as part of their psychological warfare they wrote Memorial candles they had Memorial candles and wrote the names of the hostages that they were holding and he told her he confided in her that even though he was writing her name on this Memorial candle it's because he really ated her because she brought positivity and life into this space they were communicating with these people and every day she prayed and every day she says that she thanked God for sending her there with purpose and for the angels that she felt were with her in this Elish place and when she was finally released her boyfriend is still there and saw how many people had prayed for her she understood that the angels that she felt when she were there when she was there were real and while she recognizes that not all the hostages had these types of experiences and they suffered immensely and they continue to suffer immensely and she saw she saw with her own eyes an 85y old man beaten to death by the terrorists and she conveyed how the hostages sit there constantly worried about their families not even knowing if they're alive or dead remember some of them have been there for so long they don't know what happened to their families in these kib and despite the horrors that she endured she found space for Faith and for resilience and hope to continue to Advocate and to continue to Daven for those who are still he held in this horrible space it's impossible for us to imag imagine what it means to have one's Freedom completely curtailed completely removed from one's life it's impossible for us to imagine the length of time that this has been going on and the impact it's had on these people and it's really hard to feel like we're doing enough or to feel like we're actually doing anything at all or to feel like there's anything we can do at all when I was in televis art and music and experiential constructed different spaces try to sensitize you to the ordeal they're going through a mock tunnel with the sounds that they hear with the feeling of confinement that they experience a table set for people who are yet to come home high chairs for children play pens cribs and empty playgrounds symbols and booths of all sorts of things that people are selling trying to get people to just not stop thinking about these incredible individuals who are held captive and for this we sit on Tish as well this is a part of theban that we are very much very much within it's hard to even read Aina reflecting about it as part of the past when it's so much part of our contemporary present but it's something that we have to connect to and hold on to once a day to close one's eyes and to feel that constriction to feel what it means to be trapped to be held to feel abandoned to feel like the world doesn't care where you are and what happens to you the story of the children of RAB is and the many many children of the Jewish people that we DAV in and we Advocate and we scream that we want them to come home e e written by r lezar a kher based on a where tells says the himself tells go to theim of and and of Moshe cuz they know how to DAV they know how to cry so so goes to you have to stand up you have to appeal to the and he goes on to explain to he doesn't even know exactly where mosha is buried nobody knows where mosha is buried so he stands near the area where mosha is buing and he's going from ancestor to ancestor begging them in sham to appeal for the Jewish people to DAV for cl and then the med says nothing was working and at that moment jumps up before she says you and I both know that loved me more and worked for my father for seven years when he finished those seven years and my wedding was ready we was ready we had the colors and we had the flowers and we had everything was ready to go and you know that that's when Lovin stepped in to switch R and Leia and what did I do what was my response what would have been The Logical rational response The Logical rational response would be what are you talking about I add him first this is my husband she would have married yo first she would have been the mother of theim and instead she gives over this Sim to his to her sister what and they were to make sure we wouldn't get mixed up and I gave them says I gave them to my sister and I was willing to give up that which I was jealous about I was willing to give up that which I wanted I was willing to summon the greatest mes I was willing to give up on my role and contribution in CL I was willing to give up in being the mother of the rest of these I would have been the aim I would have been me RA arises and he says to ra because of you I'm going to return cl to their place that's what the says there is telling your to go to theim of the OS every single day we begin our Shon by evoking the legacy of the AOS people we never met people that are not part of our daily life a section of Shimona EST that if anything initiates are moments of not in the context of that which we feel and we connect to is most urgent most pressing most real most authentic most sincere what we're really there to ask for our parasa children shim CL but instead okay abov a tour of Jewish history and explains theim that the reason for this is because a Jew never doens just for themselves a Jew doesn't live just for themselves that before we D and we approach AES and we say to I'm not just asking this for myself I'm part of a bigger story I'm part of a bigger people most importantly I'm part of a bigger Covenant that my life matters and its success is relevant to the unfolding drama of Jewish history that I have a role to play and I need you if you are going to see to actually the vision of and of then I need I need Das and I need Rua and I need parosa and I need Shalom and I need mhia that that's part of the context from which we DAV and that those that came before us we don't just view as historical figures of the past American Contemporary American Jewish uh Contemporary American historians are very busy trying to figure out how the founding fathers they weren't so founding they weren't so fathers they weren't so this they had this issue that issue this issue that issue we don't do that they make mistakes they didn't make mistakes okay you can get into the Reon him we rever what they stood for who they were we're part of something bigger at a Kev we have the mining to put a stone on the Cav that's our mining doesn't seem so nice when I pass the cemeteries which in pic is pretty much driving anywhere you know y you see these beautiful flowers on the graves color life Vitality what do we do here's a stone here's a stone come on a little maybe we'll light a candle here's a stone so I once heard from R gold the reason we put a stone on a cover is because placing a stone on a on a headstone placing a stone on a cover is an act of Bion it's an act of building and what we're trying to acknowledge to the person we've lost is that we're not here to just remember you as someone of the past we're here to build what Rabbi gold called a a kashia we're here to build another floor we're H to build a future inspired by how you lived and how you died inspired by your legacy and what you stand for inspired by how you carried the Abram Y and yob forward in Jewish history we're not here to give you a flower a flower says you were beautiful you were beautiful we could do that we could do that in our home we could do that we could do that we're really here to build that's why we go to Karim on our trip to ER Isel one of the times I got in trouble because I didn't exactly share with my wife everywhere we were going but this is kenos not shom Bas talks um she said to me uh where are you headed I said oh we're headed to myv she's like my he said yeah mar mar mar you know where are you doing Mar what do we do Mar there lot of place [Music] you knowas isn't the only place D lot of placees D now where are you going for Mar we'll get a minion it'll be good it'll be where you going Mar speak to you later I think the connections so from our day which we spent in stero which we spent with families who had lost children which we spent at the hospital with soldiers who were injured we went to and I have to tell you of all my dings at the cotel that might have been one of the most powerful fos I've ever experienced in my life life to just show up and beg our parents to please help their children and while we were walking is Ruth here while we were walking from Mar after to B hadasa which is about a 15 20 minute walk we passed an army base area where there was music there was Shira and we walk in we're like 30 ranim ranim and I can't describe what was going on there was a soldier who had gotten married four days ago and went literally from Thea basically to the unit in Kon and hisra felt bad that he didn't have chevas so they decided to make a Chas on the base and they surprised him and they brought the kala and we walk in this base and there's a and kala sitting there and there's a there's music they brought a keyboard play they brought music dancing and dancing and dancing and so we joined them and all of a sudden this was supposed to be a little of soldiers became Bic and Baltimore and Cincinnati and Seattle and Los Angeles and Cleveland and I can't even remember all the communities that were represented even the five towns oops we're on video everyone represented who was all of CLA Israel dancing for this and kala old y feet away from an appreciation for what it means to build the next stage of the Jewish people and that's also part of what we do on Tish we put a stone we put a little Stone on the Tish of last year of this year we say that Kesh yeah it's terrible we're crying it's a grave but we're also building it's it's a mid we're also moving forward K the work and the sacrifice that was done in this war to bring am Israel to C Israel is unbelievable you heard just from Hal's story so risking their life risking their life to protect the Goof the holy goof of a Jewish boy that he could be brought to cover Israel you listen to the Leva of the burial of Rabbi Duron paris's son on how they were not able to bury his entire goof becauseas is still holding on but they had some Dam and the that it brought just to bring this Dam just to bring this blood to kurur the unbelievable stories of zaka and hatah going into areas that were unbelievably dangerous risking their lives to bring Jews to K Israel and you know why we do that we do that that because we need a place from which to build the next floor from which to build forward we need a place to summon the ra of ouros we need a place from which we can reach the Rabon sham like raal did and ultimately it is Ra's selflessness that evokes the F mercy of the Rabon shalum and here's the lesson the lesson is that we think life is only about achievement Abraham had a lot of achievements y had a lot of achievements yob had a lot of achievements God knows Moser Renu had a lot of achievements that didn't move the needle what moved the needle was giving up achievement for someone else what moved the needle was saying you know what I do want to be the a I do want to be imagine what she had but I'm not going to embarrass my sister Giving Up on not just that which is valuable to us but that which is so precious to us I heard rasher Weiss once say in the name of his father that he was told by the kenberg rebba when they were spending so much time involved with dealing with survivors from the Shah that m nees doesn't just mean m nees like giving of your soul sacrificing your soul it means giving a little bit of your Rus so someone else could be could have it better to save someone else to give up that which matters to us most that's what gets to say to we're a very achievement oriented generation in our religious life boy boy do we keep score we keep score for ourselves we keep score for our families we keep score for the neighborhood we keep score I can't even tell you I get emails from people you know I heard your SCH did this I don't understand why you doing this why you doing that I'm like why how do you have time to write me this email it's the most biggest ping boy do we keep score which as how many people learning how many people what standards we keep score saying to K Israel it's not about the score it's about what you're willing to do for each other even willing to give up a few points for each other for e e e H the tells us that there is a connection we mentioned this last night there is a connection between there's a connection between Tish and pesak that the day of the week that Tish falls out will always be the day of the week of seder night and Thea goes on to compare the glory of our Exodus from Egypt with the lamenting reality of our expulsion from Y and bringing these two realities together the world of pesak and the world of Tish brings us to a space where we can certainly recognize that part of the Journey of PES is that we don't just relive a moment of Liberation without appreciating what came before it and that ultimately Our aspirational Hope for Tish is that it too will be the M for an ultimate Messi bish a fire burns within me this phrase in the Torah describes the fire that used to be on the there had to always be an burning on the and tell usab it has to be burning on shabas and then we are [Music] told that when they would light the in the they would do so from the M asks the yud why in the world would you light the minora from the fire of the m yud a survivor of the shaah a of Shapiro and he answers that the ramban real ramban comments that any individual who brings a carbon is essentially engaging in a process of seeing themselves as embodying this moment of sacrifice they see their limitations and they see their aspirations and they see even their suffering and their challenge their compromise says the yud that the reason why we light from the m to the Min is that the minora serves as an opportunity to radiate and illuminate the light of the mikdash to the world and that light that we try to bring to the world that light of hope that light of goodness that light of of redemption that doesn't get lit on its own it's drawn from the fires of sacrifice we have to recognize that Tish while it is a day that we descend into the abyss of the suffering of the Jewish people it is simultaneously a day of Mo the day of n a day of Hope as many MIM explain the concept of being the 21 days that exist of the three weeks between Shas and Tish parallel to 21 days between rashash Shana sheras and the ability to see greatness and potential in the Embers of Destruction and in the fires that feel like they're consuming us to be able to draw from the a from the fire from the passion from the dedication the devotion the unity the commitment the sense of Amel that has emerged in the Tish of this past year and to take that fire and to light the manur and to create a reality where our pain is also the source of our illumination which culminates Bishi [Music] B for came [Music] say [Music] y [Music] are [Music] for [Music] for for [Music] [Applause] [Music] say for [Music] we're going to recite uh three more Kos two with some reflections next K is I don't think we've ever had a year in that we have been so focused on Isel every daving every every news article every jump every moment and it has no doubt within each and every one of us surfaced a tremendous sense of shifa tremendous sense of connection to the land of Israel every year at this time we pause for a moment in our Gus Exile experience to acknowledge to recognize and to face the profound hypocrisy that we all live the profound Paradox that we all live that we dve in and we cry and we mourn for Yim for Israel and and in so many ways it's actually within our reach when I was at the RCA convention the Rabin Council of America Convention so they asked me to speak about shs and October 7th and I shared with the rabim that I like to speak about the importance of making Aliyah you know we had us we had with us in the Shir family that made Aliyah last year a couple years ago that last year was so long it's hard to a couple weeks ago we had two families from the make alah and I got a WhatsApp note from Penny Gilden last night we're in touch he likes to tell me how great is new Rabbi is and uh he was telling me on the note how important it is that we all Davin for what we're all very worried about the attack from Iran and he said you know we really need you to Davin for us and I heard in his voice such a sense of privilege and accomplishment and he got to use the word us you could tell he's been there for a few days he he could barely find the post office mostly because it's only open an hour and a half a day and that's it it's us he's there it's us so I was sharing with the ranam in the RCA a lot of ranam don't like to talk about Aliah don't like to encourage Aliah because you feel like a hypocrite I'm encouraging Aliah Rabbi of Young Israel P Clifton work for the OU I'm here how am I supposed to tell all of you to go there so I told the raban him this doesn't bother me at all I don't do any of the things I tell the ra babat to do I tell them to be better husbands I'm not the best husband I tell them to keep shabas well I'm not the best shabas keeper I tell them to learn I don't learn all the time I tell him to do Chua for hours and hours and hours I don't do chuva I don't do anything I told him to do so I should pick Aliah as my point of discomfort that now I feel like I'm a hypocrite I can't can tell anyone to make aliia ridiculous but in all seriousness this is a moment in Jewish history where we all need to be asking ourselves this question what are we doing here and maybe there's an answer to that question and maybe the answer is legitimately there are reasons why this is the spot where KES decided in his world we need to be at this moment but it has to be the answer to a question it can't be the crystallization of a sense of complacency that we just have defined our space is here we have to ask ourselves what are we doing here we have to want it we have to Aspire to it we have to work towards it we have to make moves that embrace it a number of the parents of the olim who lost children in this war a number of them were asked the very hpic but very fair question you know it's one thing if you were born and grew up in AR Isel that's what you know that's where you are you're indigenous to this space that's your language that's your country that's your culture but you chose to move your family there and now look at this sacrifice you made you could have been dealing with whether or not your kids uh get into the college you want and another a number of them were asked if they regret it and it was amazing to watch one after the other have such a sense of clarity I'm sure there are spaces in their heart and their soul their what if spaces that plague anyone in grief but such a sense of absolute Clarity this is where amus belongs and the sacrifices that are inevitably part part of it one of the soldiers who gave his life kesem was a member of the kahila of Rabbi Shalom rasner a very close friend and rebi to many people in this room and Rabbi rasner in the hpid gave a very very moving hpid Rabbi Rosner is a voice that we're all used to listening to with such passion and speed and intensity and excitement for T it was hard to hear him give a h it felt off but Kadar it was it was rooted in and he was speaking of the Beloved mha Zimbalist and at the end he said the following said Rabbi rasner a thought crossed my mind that gave me a measure of comfort we are living in a very trying time in Jewish history it is painful and it is personal but we need to feel deep down that we are moving towards greater and amazing times that Hashem is running the world and that he is bringing the world to its ultimate State and that we are Z to play a role in this amazing process process we have not had an opportunity since the days of DAV and we cherish and we are proud that we get to be hashem's partners and I call out to Jews all over the world come join us come make this your home and be part of Jewish history come help make this amazing land what it is today the Zimbalist have given their most precious possession so that we and that you can live in peace and insecurity for each and every one of us this is the question that we have to confront in our own lives to recognize the great privilege that we have to live in the era we have to live in and that if there's one thing that we've learned over the past year that is that we're one people we're one nation and rosai we don't have to get into the fact that even the complacency has started to shift as we see the anti-Semitism all over we didn't get a chance to read some of the Keynotes about other communities in Europe it's not just that they're anti-semites in America okay okay there are anti-semites in America there are so many people who don't care there are so many people who tolerate it as a normal part of life okay so a bunch of mugas on a college campus who are screaming that's not the big problem the big problem is we've always had mugas the thousands of people that walk by them and don't care the sense of complacency is unraveling for us too and we have to find within ourselves new reservoirs of strength to revisit this question and to revisit with with real commitment the threshold of what's reasonable to hold back is different now than it was before the pieces are being moved around we don't want to be the spot that the pieces are being moved around around we want to be in the spot where the pieces are being moved towards whole thing all that's hard to even go through everything that happened this year Iran it's proxies it's different you could go out of your mind or you could anchor yourself in the story in the history in the Legacy and in the future of the Jewish people and that's what we're striving towards to feel that sense of Destiny that's not something we're going to get here no matter how many yeshivas we open and no matter how good the restaurants are we'll never fully feel that sense of Destiny I got a text from mayor Laura this morning telling me not to worry that he canell the alternate side parking for today so we could mourn the temple it's beautiful he's a he's a tremendous friend to the Jewish people built the biggest Suka in pic giv M shus on Kaneka tremendous friend to the Jewish people unbelievable but this is this is us don't worry we took care of Al side parking to figure out where we are figure out where we're supposed to be sh for for for before we complete the Kos with elit uh We've distributed we've talked so much today about October 7th and the events surrounding this terrible tragedy there are two kyos there are many there are a number of kyos that were composed um I've shared with you two one was written by Rabbi Hower Rabbi mosha Hower the Executive Vice President of the Orthodox Union one was written by Rabbi remon both individuals who have played tremendous leadership roles how in the United States Rab remon in ER Israel both individuals who embody the sensitivity of the Jewish people and what it means to be part of the Jewish people in a manner that can reach such a poetic expression of pain resulting in the composition of a Kino that could give us voice for this uh terrible tragedy and so uh I leave with you the choice which one you'd like to recite but for the next few moments we'll recite these Keynotes and then we'll [Music] conclude for spe for elit the ARA Lon in her cities kimab like a woman in labor pain explains the the pain of Labor is excruciating but the notion and the knowledge that ultimately this pain will yield life with unimaginable potential for impact and influence elevation and the opportunity to make a difference in the world recasts that pain pain is really just the foundation the very painful Foundation of something that we will ultimately realize moves the Jewish people forward this War Began on and onim Tor the hakos that we do on Sim Tor the notion that we encircle the beima Time After Time on Sim Torah is a very very longstanding Min and the source of that Min says the Rama is none other than the Jewish people's first moment of Conquest in erit Israel and that is the encircling of the city of uro that Sim Torah embodies and represents the conquest of Isel not based only on our efforts and our initiative but when the Reon was with us and he just pulled the walls down that's the Sim Tor that we're working towards another Yuro where the Rabon pulls the walls down Ander as we know is a in the Jewish calendar that lives at once as a part of suus it's thei It's the a it's part of our past but it's also a Regal it's also part of our future it has its own carbon it has its own and it sets us on a course of not only being defined by what was but also harnessing the potential of of what could be I want to share with you one final story that's very very close to my heart the family in our SCH David and Yael Schnabel they called me I think sometime around maybe it was December end of November and they were going to have their first child and they called because they were considering naming their child after someone who perished who was killed on October 7th and wanted to know is such a thing appropriate do we name people after people who died tragically and I shared with them I I think nothing would be more more beautiful and to give that kind of nitus to give that kind of eternality to a family to name a child after someone they lost and so for those in the room and online who know D David David works for the New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys it's not his fault David works for the New York Yankees he's a huge sports fan and with that background he went online and he began to just search through biography after biography after biography of people who were killed in October 7th and they came upon on a young boy a teenager named leor leor tarashansky Leora tarashansky was a young teenager who was a huge huge sports fan that's what kept getting described he was a big fan of makabi K that such a thing makabi K huge fan and leor was in his home his father Ilia his mother Ruma and his sister G in B when the terrorists entered and they were in the safe room hiding and Ilia his father who I've met and spent time with in his home not in his home in B in his temporary home in Tel Aviv and he was sharing with me this story that he was in his home and they were all in home and they were in the safe room and he was trying his best to hold on to that door and eventually it didn't matter because the terrorists slit the home on fire and they had absolutely no choice they either burned to death in the home or they break a window and they jump out so they broke a window and they jumped out and waiting for them on the other side of the window was a terrorist who killed Lear in front of his father and who captured gal and took her to Gaza and it was a long time before then everything moved very quickly and they obviously couldn't take leor with them they were running everyone was running in different spaces it took a while to even find out what happened they didn't even know exactly what happened and eventually they learned that they had one child who was killed leor and they had one child who was being held hostage in Gaza and ilot told me he said you know he's from Russia he's Russian he said to me you know my grandfather fought the Nazis in World War II I said my grandfather also fought the Nazis in World War II he said I never imagined in a million years in a million billion cilon years I would come face to face with a Nazi my home burned my children executed for I I cannot I couldn't imagine what was going on it was like in another world and it was this boy who was described his aunt his parents were they couldn't talk they couldn't move the aunt was like the spokesperson for the family and she's the one that spoke to the press and she explained how leor had been a sports fan and David came to me and said I want to we we want me and Yael we want to name our our son after leor so I said to him you want to name your son after leor it's so beautiful we have to find the family we have to find the family so I'm not going to tell you how I found the family because it involves a website that you're not going to approve of Facebook we track down the family we track down the ant and I get on the phone with his aunt and I explain to her that there's a family in pic New Jersey to say that she had never heard of pay can you imagine to say that she had never she said oh I shop there no that's not what she said can you imagine she there's a family in pic New Jersey that you've never met that you've never heard of that's never met you and never heard of you and they're about to have their B and they want to name their son after your nephew after leor so she explained to me the following she explained to me that and I told her this was going to happen as soon as say the baby was born and I want to make sure that we can make this connection that you should know it's happening I don't remember the order of all the details but I do remember the following G while she was held hostage the family refused to have a Leva for leor to sit Shiva for leor sorry they had a Leva but they refused to sit sh they said we're not going to sit here in a tent and accept div K from people when we have a daughter sitting with Kamas and Gaza we're not doing it we're not sitting shba until she's home she was in the last group that was traded in the last hostage release she was in the last group and ilas showed me the videos on his phone videos you don't see in the Press of the first hug with his daughter of him in the helicopter going to wherever they were going to the base near Gaza where they met her and he showed me the picture of him and his wife hugging their daughter for the first time in 55 days of her being as a teenager as a teenager with terrorists in Gaza and they hug her and she looks at her parents and she says where is leor and at that moment at that moment of reunification of the family the parents had to tell their daughter that his brother was killed once G was released the family decided to sit Shiva and while the family was sitting shiva y went into labor and have his baby and eight days later with the Tans on a zoom or on a video Lear and there's this baby when I was in their house when I when I sat with Lor's parents I told them I said there's this little baby being pushed around our named leor they took pictures and sent it to the family and then when their family made it to Isel they got to spend time with the family they actually took them to B to show them their what was their home urm the whole Schnabel family including leor dressed up in the uniforms of makabi Kaa and send pictures to the family is in the very very very painful birth Banks of mssiah and it hurts and there's loss and there's pain there's a chuva that R remon published R remon publishes many many chuvas and he published a Chua that he wrote to a young girl on his yesu whose father was killed in the Army and who wanted to know all the details tells about is he going to look like he used to look how does it happen and Ron wrote her a four-page Chua explaining exactly what is how it's going to look how it's going to work I don't know I have thousands of pages of Chas from Generations I've never seen a chba like that not in theam s not in the igis Mosa not not anywhere we are very much we are feeling acute acute pain but we are also feeling profound potential we are watching the pieces get moved around by the raon in such a way that it's almost inconceivable that it's anything but but it needs us it needs us to play our role our role in bringing CLA Israel together our role in making our way to Israel our role in advancing our sense of commitment to what it means to be a Jew to be proud to be a Jew not to be distracted by the issues of Exile but to really Embrace what it means to be a Jew to care to really care to see the pain of others and to do something to prioritize right to not get back from the world of Tish into the Mish of things that don't really matter even in the most tremendous pain imaginable this father Ilia this mother they also now watch the birth of a child who's going to be raised with the values that matter and that will ultimately bring us closer to Gula closer to Redemption we have to know that K is going to be okay you know how I know we're going to be okay because you look at the people who are at the heart of this reality and you see what they stand for and how they think and what they believe and their faith and their commitment in who they are and you look more broadly and you see what's possible you see the love that could come from CLA Isel you see that in those minutes after the war started we were ready to give them anything you need just anything you need you need beef jerky give you be you need vests we'll give you vests you need sites we'll give just take it just take it just take everything I don't want anything just take everything duffel bags and duffel bags and duffel bags millions and hundreds of millions of dollars that's K that's CL Isel on track for Redemption and it's up to us to keep it moving and it's up to us to keep it moving together I want to end as we always do with the words of rakov em his introduction to his sitter words that resonate this year perhaps more so than many other years us this great nation after everything that happened to us from the terrible terrible sufferings over thousands of years near De konu and there's no other nation that is pursued like we are that is called to this task in the so-called International Community international criminal court for defending innocent people while the ravages and Savages of humanity if we could call them that that are making political statements how great are our Sor they try to destroy us they try to uproot [Music] us because of their just unbridled hatred of the Jewish people and their unrestrained jealousy of the success of is how great are our [Music] Sor and yet where are the Romans where are the Babylonians where are the Greeks where is the last president of Iran those Nations their memory is lost there are no museums memorializing the Nazis or the Romans and we are connected to we live we plant we raise bigger families we advance our people we build our communities and through this 2,000 year and throughout this 2,000 year gos the Tor that we took out this morning which was written two or three years ago not one letter off from the saer Torah that was in theer not one word not one letter what are you going to say about such a phenomenon this is all coincidence I swear by my life when I think about these wonders is that the N of Jewish survival the N of Isel is greater than all the of of of all the of all of the Jewish people all the Miracles that we talk about all the time the miracle of and let me tell you something says rakov the longer the Gus goes y the greater the miracle and we say to we're ready for the miracle of Gus to come to a close and we're ready for the miracle of birth of Messiah of redemption to become our new standing reality we're really ready not just to experience we're ready not just to experience Comfort but as explained the word really means a shift a shift in reality we're ready for that shift to open the doors to a new reality for the Jewish people should give strength to am Isel should protect those who are serving those who are defending and protecting his people in the cities of Theon should give to those who have lost and are trying to put whatever pieces of they have back together should be with and should lead to Freedom our hostages who remain in Gaza should bring to those whove lost so many should protect is is with his miraculous world of defense and should bring us all with to bring in a new era of ga [Music] are [Music] sh for [Music] sh [Music] good for [Music] hallu spe [Music] for for for us [Music] say for