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Tisha B'av 2025/5785 - Rabbi Yaakov Glasser
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KINNOS 5785: SACRIFICE & HOPE ON THE ROAD TO REDEMPTION
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I want to acknowge
that our uh kinos
are sponsored memory of Mark Brand and
all of their family members who were
killed in the show up. Also want to
acknowledge those that are joining
making that accessible.
One that is felt not only in the
sentiment of the day, not only in the
emotionality of the
but one that is literally felt has to
where it's filling
until after.
But what is fascinating
and this iconic aspect
of the projection of our sense of pride
in our
this embracing when we bring ourselves
before every single morning
and we
that brings us before every single
morning we find ourselves
Just having a technical
>> try one more time.
>> Is that better?
>> Okay.
that for most of Cla Israel we find our
and for most of us we will not put on
fill in until the very very final
moments of tishabuff
and it's so hard to understand
that something that contains within it
the essence of who we are the essence of
everything that cla fought for over the
course of our Jewish history over
everything that we remember becomes void
and absent and missing from the entire
moments of over the course of tishab
and ravulson in his safer
explains the following already at the
end of the day at mka but it's such a
void to walk into a room even on tishab
even sitting on the floor but to see cla
on our minds. Why would Fuin be moved
towards the end of the day?
And he answers so beautifully via
Mishum.
He explains Rev Wolfin the reason we're
not wearing fill in till the very final
moments of tishov.
The reason we're not wearing fill in
this when we connect with the inner soul
of what fillain's all about.
The reason we don't wear fill in the
entirety of the day of tishab is because
there are other days until the very last
moments of tishab we hold on to the hope
we hold on to the aspiration
that perhaps today will not Jewish
people perhaps today will not be a day
that is devoid of fillin because we are
hesitant in the abyss of our aos but
today will be a hope and desire we're
not wearing fillin this morning Because
today may be a yantiff.
Today may be a day of celebration.
We could read the hauros of your moani.
We could read a we could recite kinos.
We could emote
the inner consternation generation as
recently as last night
to see the horrific images
of the hostages in god history. But at
the same time
synthesized within that reality,
it is also a day of hope. A feeling that
we all bring to Ishabove right now in
this year in 5785.
This has been a year since last tish
with the pain and the suffering that
cloud Israel has experienced
with all of the moments
of those day of deep tishov
and it's been a year that's brought
forth some of the most painful moments
imaginable for cl Israel throughout our
historic
saving the Jewish people.
It has been a year where we have
experienced the heroism, the courage,
the tenacity.
It's been a year where when the phone
buzzes with an alert, you absolutely
never know what you're going to open.
Are you going to open I'm Israel
peeking out in a manner that is so
revealed and so experienced and so tense
and then returning is imaginable.
And the truth is that this pattern of
Jewish history that we are experiencing
even though it feels so contradict
comes to Abrau and he says to him I want
to build a people from you. I want to
build a nation from you.
who is engaged, a creator who is
constantly within the realities of the
unfolding historical narratives of
humanity and ideals of the ribol are all
about and you're going to have to build
a lifestyle
one that embodies the elevation of
andeshu tells au so who wouldn't want to
sign on for that so au says toesh we're
in of course we're
You have to know that part of this
journey is that it is not linear.
It is not be strangers.
You're going to be strangers because you
will be existing within a world that
stands in such contradistinctions
is the diminishing reality of values in
the societies around us. in the jealousy
that ends up forming and surfacing on
this puk
interpreting the redundancy of the
phrase yoa.
You should surely know
that I'm also going to gather youon.
You should know that I'm going to pledge
you out like a mashko
says the medish. You should know that
you're going to be enslaved.
But
you have to know is the medish itself
redundant.
Why does the media say you should know
that you will ultimately experience a
redemption?
says
with these two words
that presented to our redemption
and the golos is formulated and
conjugated in into the future.
Here's what the Maral is saying in
interpreting this this medish minolus
is more than just a delineation
that characterizes the various stations
of Jewish history as we are going to
experience them. What is going to be
that from within what you experience in
the moment from within the pain from
within the war from within the
consternation from and chuva that will
make you worthy of
of the redemption itself
that the fact that we feel
and on the other hand we watched Baraku
knock hundreds of missiles out of the
air
that is the Brisbane's epic encounter
with Asov with the enemies of the what
would become the enemies of the Jewish
people
it's complicated what time Davin Mirev
depends on the shul
it depends on your orientation toward my
was an early minion that the sun went
down when it didn't really go down
I remember our family spent a shabas
together one of so their manim are a
little bit different than the young
Israel's manim which are a little bit
different than everyone else's manim
over for what we thought would be
And we walked into, you know, Rifa of
Khazar of Min. So when the minion was
over, I went up to the I guess it was
the RV or the Reba, whatever. I said
just I I have to explain it to me. I
just I have to understand like what's
shot with this? Give me the Maramakum.
Just give it to me. I'll I'll put it in
the in the sheets and then I'll be
happy.
And he quoted I think he was quoting the
sarba ala
you're very good at turning you know
enjoyment and ong into consternation and
suffering by the we turn lila yakovu
prepares for this encounter with
and rashi tells us it wasn't really
night what does it mean it wasn't
What it means is that our encounters
with the world of As
is all mu it is all mixed up.
It is all part of one incomprehensible
combination.
Not only does it reflect itself in the
original covenant with Abraham, not only
in Yakov's confrontation, but in the
Kurbanas itself, which the Gimash to the
world of the Keshakim, what do they
discover? Matsuim,
they find the Kuim
also possesses within its consuming fire
the sparks of potential to illuminate a
new reality.
the goodness in each other to see
something bigger than the points of
conflict in each other. The crew of him
understood that in the crucible of
destru
understood that so often within the
world of Kurban we also encounter such a
world of strength
and this reality of the Jewish people of
what we experience this year.
Rowey Klene was born and raised in
Ranana.
His parents were Holocaust DF as a
paratrooper.
In 2002, he met his future wife Sara.
And we have the letter that he wrote
floor the next reality of the Jewish
people coming from such ashes of
destruction.
Israel
is
this is how he's communicating his
thoughts and sentiments in anticipation
of marrying his have a plan. No, his
thoughts, his sentiment, his focus in
building his home is on them is on their
values.
Whoever
the couple moves to to the West Bank and
builds a home
in the Golani
and they were in southern Lebanon
and Hezbollah terrorists
attack their most icing his life for the
sake of his soldiers.
And in the last seconds of his life,
he musters the strength to scream shim.
A safer that was put together by his
friends in Rayim with comments that he
had on various suggest.
Whether or not we relate to weapons as a
tit or as a gay are weapons considered
an adornment like
how can you view a weapon an instrument
of death and destruction yes an
instrument of defense but also an
instrument that is used in order here
honey I didn't get you earrings for
yontiff I got you a gun or a knife I
don't think that would go over so well
so something that is adorned
with a radiating sense of beauty
external to the individual. beautiful
jewelry has the capacity
to reveal
and the inner strength that exists
within the Jewish people
the in into the world that courage and
that bravery that simmers within the
soul and the body of a Jewish soul of
the day the persecution and the gullus
and the gula. It is all wrapped up in
one. And the instruments that sometimes
have to contend with and fight
of what it means to embrace peoplehood
of amus.
19 years later, a couple of weeks ago,
also handed his Tanakh and his weapon.
Also handed the confidence and the love
of the Jewish people to be
There is a family that our shul is
incredibly connected with. If you recall
last year on tiship of the faon
on October 7th, Halon was a combat
soldier
and he was stationed at the Sufa outpost
to hold off the terrorists from
penetrating the Yeshu the base. And with
his alertness, he noticed that they were
also firing through holes in the
concrete barracks.
until
there was no more strength
and one of them shot and hal fell. This
is a family that has experienced
enormous pain.
This year they couldn't make it here to
Payic. So a few weeks ago
was the assistant director of camp
Moshava for many years. She grew up in
camp and Hollow grew up in the camp
and so his to leave without the chance
to see them.
And as we're talking, as constantly
happens,
we discover additional points of
connection. Who was your uncle's name?
What was his name? She told me his name.
Rabbi Natan Greenberg. I said, Rabbi
Natan Greenberg. He was the NCSY
educational director when Ruth and I
were in NCSY. We knew him very well. I
used to learn with him every Shabas
afternoon. The Sadones are building a
horse ranch
that helps children that don't succeed
initially in school by giving them the
opportunity to be able to me that at one
of their fundraisers they had a parlor
meeting in Erit Israel and a whole bunch
of friends of Hal came to the parlor
meeting.
Hallel Sadon was his friend was his
comrade.
how he and Hallel rode the horses
together and found their inner
confidence together in this space and
being able to create an opportunity for
others to be able to experience similar
evolution
was something that he wanted to go and
he had his goal
o Gruber from Talminash
showed up at this parlor meeting Oz's
parents
posted the letter on the door of the
Shiva house
that everyone who comes through this
Shiva house, the kesh Akdashim,
who comes through for the darkness of my
should the ambitions and aspirations of
their holy the world of unity.
that we should understand what it means.
Tamir their neck as she and her husband
sat at the teasbah
the oath that is taken by the soldiers
an oath then
even to give my life
to Israel
ways she was also at the ceremony of hal
and all of the sudden
in in the middle of the swearing in a
candle in memory of halal.
And she writes that that actually shook
her in terms of the meaning of these
words
that all of the sudden these words have
real meaning for me.
The team spirit is so strong while the
dedication and send sons that we love so
much.
So much excitement and joy with Tamir
and his way.
So much sadness and longing and the void
in the future of Israel as a whole in
these crazy times.
This time we got VIP seats for the whole
family. And we have the front row seat
so no one is befell from the NA brigade
in this war.
Tamiri, our champion. We are so proud of
you and we love you.
He's on page 195 in the kinos
and it begins
has our entire recitation of kinos today
begin
counterintuitively not with a word that
captures and depicts
the kinetic energy and movement of
destruction.
Shas means our joy has ceased.
Suru many
And our enemies have said such a
actualization of these words as we look
around the world
and we see the focus on the Jewish
people realities of the Jewish people is
terror rewarded
supported validated
tolerated
from our cave
from spaces that we counted as
nations that we imagine to share in some
of the values functional and corrupt
conception of what is expected and of
what is right.
Rab Salvich would explain place on Mo
Shabas.
Rab Salvich explained that the says in
the Torah,
how is that possible? It's already
shabas.
So shavas says there
rashi explains
he doesn't need the mymanim.com
with the six opinions on the top. The
moment that shabas begins there's no
confusion.
There's an immediacy to the start of
shabas. Not for us we vamp to shabas.
There we have a pathway there. The rebel
knows exactly when shabas begins and
therefore that's
says there explains
that the kurban came in a manner
that had a certain sense of
unanticipated erupt shadowing
experiences and events and moments that
predicted it. It's not because there
were not nim that told us it was coming
area of Gaza.
It was not because there was no one
screaming that maybe the collapse of
Akus and the Jewish people had the
potential to have cat the
sense that we got this. Everything's
okay.
We become impervious to any sense of and
the terror is unleashed.
It comes as shas. It comes as a
surprise. It comes as a shock.
And for a few minutes
and that is a point of contrast
between the way we describe Kurban and
Gulos
and with a terror
comes when a missile lands and slams
into the home of someone
and a family is ended
to the experience of redemption of
Gulah.
And they saw the rise of the shakar of
the morning that was happening in this
valley of the light
comes for the Jewish people.
In the beginning it comes little by
little.
about redemption about gula that number
one just like the dawn is gradual
doesn't just turn on the lights moves as
part of our unfolding destiny and just
like if you're sitting outside and
you're watching a sunrise
the world is not because a shakar is not
Something that's apparent to everyone at
the outset
that very often even as that sun comes
up if you're looking in this direction
you but after a matter of time the
environment becomes so saturated with
illumination that suddenly everyone
appreciates
the real darkness
and some are already privileged to begin
to see the rising light
but the inevitable
as such a beautiful
radiating
world of light
and we have that with the pain and
tragedy of darkness
and his final point relates
to what is a well-known
concept that is explicated.
Agam Ber was supposed to be stationed at
Karim Shalom and at the last moment they
changed her assign and the very next day
that she arrived at this base
as an observer at Nakalos she was
violently abducted.
They asked us what it was and they gave
it to us and we used it in our
captivity.
She describes how they celebrated the
khagim
last night, this past night, tishab this
year, she described how exactly one year
ago on the night of tishabove, she exile
and help us grow that the Jewish people
have faced catastrophes that would have
wiped out most nations. Yet we endure
and prayed, but they never surrendered
to fear or victimhood. They knew they
had a purpose. Every devastation
eventually read led me never gave into
despair. I was kidnapped simply for
being Jewish. I risk my life to hold on
to who I am. I faced darkness of
captivity into the soul of a Jew.
We learned the Hebrew date, the sixth of
Av.
And from that we stayed part of our
people's journey. That means when we
were sitting in this room one year ago
on the floor after taking our to cow
pill
and all these things were sitting on the
floor and we're trying to mourn the bay
mikdash and a little cracks here a
little thing there
and she describes that even underground
we stayed part of our people's journey
every by strengthening our identity
reconnecting with our roots. The hatred
against us isn't logical or
intellectual. Our generation is living
through a def. That's the victory.
And above all, we must stand for the
release of the hostages and to bring
them home. Our most basic moral nagam is
a phenomenal young woman.
It's the 80th anniversary
of the liberation of Awitz.
And there was a
76-y old man named Yitzkak Bearing whose
father Mut had survived the Holocaust
came to Israel
including Yitzk
and Yitzk recounted how his father
determined
and she was gifted
this very very old violin that belonged
to this Jewish musician. ition who was
murdered in the Holocaust. Israeli
delegation of former captives,
relatives of victims of kamas
marking the 80 years world of Kim Kima.
This is the world of it takes a long
time from a violin to make its way
from a Polish orchestra. This is for us
sitting on the floor on tishabove itself
sitting without our fill in hoping and
yearning
believe it or not that we to know that a
keshbaru is with us
and to acknowledge and confront the
tragedies of Jewish history
to see the darkness on one side of the
that are carrying us forward. Continue
with Kinov.
That's awesome.
Also,
manner that we don't usually evoke in
our conversation and engagement with
how could you rush your wrath
running ruining your loyal people at the
hands of Rome.
and not remember the covenant with Abra
this tantrum of faith.
How could you scorn us with your scorn
is the concept of
the Garanos
already wonders what should be made when
a person just like we make on good
things that happen we make on bad things
that happen my shame what does that mean
and the Garra entertains for a fleeting
moment
that
elillude any of us elude Mosherenu
and even elude the rabbis who could
inter knowledge that reality
in the Garra says that's impossible.
The human condition cannot tolerate
an authent to be an expression of human
appreciation for's presence in this
world. That's why we make before we eat
food when we see a natural one.
Sometimes it takes a lot to figure out
exactly how to be as precise as possible
with that inner sense. And anyone who's
been learning knows exactly what I'm
talking about. So then the Garra
questions then what is the parallel to
the experience of elation the experience
of
and the Garra says
in our life
that we encounter when we are in moments
of and joy
we have to bring forward that
before we tear that ka before we
acknowledge that something really has
been ripped from us
we make a braha cry out on tishabove
from a place of deep consternation from
a place of deep pain and allow just
the RV writes that it's your
who is the mater for all of this and he
is madesh that me for the ha Torah so he
could hear the words of your moan novi
and by internalizing those sentiments
and those experiences is we can but
what's fascinating about the kon is that
the refrain that comes each and every
paragraph is the phrase
lanu doesn't just mean the entirety of
the Jewish people lanu means us and the
shalom
remember and in their tragedy from the
very first moments of mitim when the
rebal comes to moherenu
from within the thorn burn bush. So it
could be that with our consciousness
and with our words
that we are declaring and in on some
level
that we're not turning to you from gulos
to your kingdom on eye and saying withah
how could you do this? We're turning to
you s and that's the that's the
sentiment that we're trying to reach.
There is a notion in yahadus
some spiritual deficit maybe lashhara
maybe other things there's a very long
list of things you could get soras from
we know the mits is the nega that's on
the individual's body does that reach
the threshold of requirements in order
to be considered
the
if a person contracts a soras that is so
is covering the entirety of his body
to
such an individual is to of the body
that the is that the individual is
explains the ibzra message to the
individual that there's something wrong
here and you have a choice You could
continue to indulge the rhythm of your
life and you can ultimately make a
change and as a result elevate yourself
in sanctity.
But writes the ibanzra when the mitsas
of the pain and all of the shortcomings
are manifest in the entirety of the
individual the entirety of the person.
There's no choice. There are no multiple
challenge
on the landscape of Jewish history.
And already from the Brisbar, we're told
we're going to go through suffering
moments where we feel like the
kufo October 8th.
It was hard to see any hope, any light,
any any. And they're not defined by
statistics or by casualty counts, but by
the suffocating grip
that they place on the very soul of our
people. counterintuitive truth that
sometimes when we
something happens
up to the world of who the
safer written by Rava son David explains
in the Garra that we quoted earlier Yuma
the Garuma says that the Torah depicts
the krim in opposite directions in two
different contexts one time the Torah
says the cru face away meet with the
expectations of Torah and mit when we
are living the ideals of the rebon the
cru face each other and when our conduct
and our sin to the
in the aftermath in the echo of all of
the
that created the foundation and the
context for one
and yet they're hugging and explains
David
he writes
He writes that often in Jewish history
when we hit that bottom floor
the opposite we encounter the phenomenon
of
they knew that if Titus is in the room
it's over there's nowhere there were
remarkable remarkable
stories that emerged as hostages began
to
be freed over emerged in a manner that
she hadn't seen his entire life.
He explained that he recite he would
recite small felos.
He had asked her someone who was
interviewed. He saw them make a buronos.
And so he started to make the braha
burimonus
that he would make these declarations
each and every day
to give himself a sense of faith to give
himself a sense of connection.
So many examples. We struggle so hard to
find strength for growth.
We need inspiration and we need
opportunity motivate us in our very busy
and dizzying reality
to find within ourselves the strength
to push forth avenue that emerges.
is when when we encounter the tragedies
of Jewish history and people can find
without any of this an opportunity we
strip away our distractions and we're
focused on what matters
that the mortality
that we encounter through all of and
what makes sense
or levy was one of the hostages that was
released
shared with the parents of Hersh
Goldberg heroes of the Jewish people
traveling all all over the world
trying to raise a clarion call for the
plight of those who are captured getting
him through this ordeal and this
experience
and the quote is one that learned in the
writings of Victor Franco with anyh how
he who has a why when you know why
you're living when you know why you want
to survive
without the aspiration of what we could
carry forward. He who has a why can
handle a how. Then the entire experience
of itself. That's what Hersh was
echoing. Remember
we're together in this pit. We have a
why. We know what we ultimately what
gives us the strength to endure a how.
How could you
then we could make it through a kon of
We can make it through a kina of how
we continue with kina z.
Good
Next kino we're going to recite is kina
the rose of shaon sat alone
the damino
Aron
the song of the Aronimar
as the Bidosh was given away
during the miss of leadership within the
Jewish people
at a particular tribe or a particular
role particular identity known as
kahuna.
explains Saddok that we imagine that the
is to unleash their agenda upon whatever
kingdom that they are ultimately in
charge of.
This used to be a depiction of monarchs.
It often is what type of alliances and
what type of circumstance do you have to
bring forward in order to get done what
you want to get done. Sodok that is not
leadership in the Jewish community. That
is not leadership in the Jewish world.
The reason that the coin is called a
coin even though all of clsil dominate
but to uplift. The real job of a coin is
not to control but to empower.
The real job of a coin is to be a
standard. We can manifest that in our
own lives. Maral points out in his
we are told heavy
and we should be like and then asks this
is what you want out of the person who
is ministering the entire mikdash hashem
a very very warm rebby that's what
you're looking shalom shalom o
explains the maral if you want to
represent the Jewish people you have to
embody the Jewish people I a point of
goodness
A spark of greatness,
a moment of commonality
within every the perishay on that Mishna
quotes the officer Abinasan
that Aron Cohen would walk the streets
Aaron Bashordance with what to Mitzvos
should be and one would imagine that his
first impulse would be he's going he
doesn't have to worry about job security
and Yeah. Says the Rambam, what is
Aron's reaction? What's his impulsive
reaction?
Shalom.
He looks at the guy and he says,
"Shalom."
And then goes on to say that when the
individual shalom and they would say to
themselves, Aron considers me worthy of
camaraderie and connection.
Aron considers me somebody and his
priorities.
And the individual from that validation,
from that empowerment would begin to
find within themselves that spark about
this one and that one and your approach
and my approach and their approach
and this isn't the right way and that's
not the right way and the gdole and this
and the gadm means to connect with the
Jewish people who embrace and mitzvah as
the animating force of our life.
What it means is to become a person who
sees the capacity within each and every
Jew to take their place their essential
irreplaceable place
within the reality of claw Israel and
help us move it forward.
And so shalom that's the world of
kahuna. The world of kahuna is to find
godliness in others.
R Salvich points out
in the geography of Yushaim
and we've made this point many times
that we know those of us who have had
the greatus of visiting the old city of
so you walk
so
assuming you know assuming you're being
by the minora
couple pictures where the phone there
used to be something called a pay phone.
The phones used to be there used to be a
stop hard 20 minutes
the walls of are penetrated on shaser.
Three weeks it takes three weeks. So
long. What took so long on this rampage
of death and destruction?
What took so long? Why couldn't they
move faster? Forget the vehicles. just
secure of Salvich what took so long is
they had to get through the kohan
that there is a fire that burns
within those that are defo for the
essence and the soul of aeshbak's
manifesting presence within Israel
and their fight and their of the Jewish
people for three entire weeks until they
managed to reach the mikdash the mikdash
hashem
And we know that protect the Jewish
people both there and here and all over
the world
is an amazing and an incredible kishame
shamayim
others in order to join this fight as
well.
There is an amazing young man
connected to our family at the he was
the oldest of four brothers and he
studied at yes hared.
He served in the tank corps and he
became a commander
and after studying he married his wife
Talia who's from Teneek we remember from
NCSY
and they started a wonderful family. He
started on an October 8th. He was
drafted into the reserves
and he served proudly and courageously
as a tank loader until he fell in. He
believed strongly
init
that he had been working on a safer
a safer that he told no one about
including his family.
The safer is the first volume of this
safer. It's called
and in the introduction his rashiva
describes the moment say
we present it to the world with tears
and with joy.
It's with tears because we are mourning
his loss.
He fell so courageously he leaves but
also is presented with
the same that
people will be able to learn a Torah
that they perhaps did not in the army of
what it means to be someone who stands
for Torah. Israel for am
goes on to explain that this kina
this kina depicts something else and
that is that these misharos of the
kohanim were divided
of cli were not just talking about the
kurban that exists of individuals and of
institutions is by vespasian he asked
give me the city of yavn and itim And it
always bothered me why didn't he say
bunim that's what he was trying to
accomplish. Yes you lion was going to be
destroyed and that choice haunted him
for the rest of his life until his
deathbed.
Yes would be but why so why does it say
what's t
and I think the answer is because never
emerges in a vacuum. Community
has an energy to it. It has a
personality to it. It has a tone to it.
It has a reality to it that transcends
the individual. And when we watch
certain aspects of that pulse and
personality shift, we watch with
concern.
Sometimes we watch with pride. A
community matters.
A community matters.
And there's of individual painful
and challenging moments
in our recent history occurred 20 years
ago. Really this week
the Garra tells us there are multiple
ways to endow with kadusha. One way is
through usurps the kadusha.
shall lost.
But the Gamarra says there's another
type of conquest. It's the conquest even
if someone comes in with force,
the conquest of settlement in dows is
faced with kaduca that endures.
And so it's so unbelievably
the author of
karibone Gaza is already in shvet yehuda
when they were forced to leave the area
because of the Arab riots.
and the British prohibited them from
living in Gaza.
Some Jews returned independence after a
long siege. The settlers of Kafar Dar
were evacuated and the kubuts fell to
the Egyptians.
There was a small attempt to resettle
Gaza being far.
Ultimately more than 20 communities were
built there and the settlements in the
main cluster known as Gushkif.
And of course they were assured that
they were playing a critical and
fundamental role in ensuring the
security, the safety, the settle set
amongst the sea as we're well aware
and our Gibbalda president holds it to
be good real estate. In December of
2003,
after the communities of Gushkativ had
endured countless acts of terror,
murder that who have been voted into
office
certainly without this assumption
declared that there would be a
disengagement and in August 2005 ability
for the future of Israel rests on my
shoulders. I initiated the plan because
I concluded that this action is vital
for Israel. Believe me, the extent has
many risks, but also a ray of hope for
us all.
With the help of God, may this path be
one of unity and not division,
of mutual risks palpable.
We have personal accounts of the final
Shabas.
Woman named Toby Greenwald shares
spending Shabas in Ghanaal.
She describes that in Friday night
surrounded by trees where wedding feasts
are usually held and the people they
went there to spend chabas with nama and
a whose ka took place on the grass over
I feel that we're standing on the eve of
yam kipper
and the next morning there are tears in
shul and no one could escape the thought
that this is probably a pulpit about the
power of miracles and al keshbar who can
do anything but his final words are in
the coming days. Let us also feel a
sense of joy and give thanks for 20
years ago.
He pulls the curtain close and leads
forward to kiss it gently.
During the repeat of the mus
the kohanim remain up there for longer
than usual, unable to part, knowing that
this may be the last time that they
bless their friends.
59year-old Anita Tucker
became an expert in growing cell. I
speak to the plants and have names for
them.
Her husband Morai teaches English at a
yeshiva high school in the adjacent
community of Katif and here and we prove
them we prove them wrong
ultimately like everyone else in of
letters back and forth.
Should we disassemble them? Should we
destroy them? Should we just leave them
knowing that the Arabs would destroy
them? In all takarus,
there were people buried in Gushkif.
the trauma of many of them people
victims of terror of having to ex be
given the role and the job of removing
other Jews
continues to be a source of unending
trauma for those who are as if not a
slight reversal of the Kima Kima of the
rising sun of redemption.
the Tucker children to report for
reserve duty even after such a difficult
and challenging reality.
There was an article that was written by
Aiel Tucker, a former resident of
Gushkatif got a call from his son Dan.
Dan is a Golani fighter. Prepare for
your arrival. We'll make sure we have
food, we have Naj, you have friends
here. And he says to him, "No, no, no.
Aba, I'm coming home."
The RV or one of the onim
in a published collection of essays 14th
of Manav. I went to the mount just as my
exiled ancestors must have done from one
mountain to another without finding any
rest. I wept for the and every day I
understand more and more the suffering
of the
the holy one too had a house with a shan
and a minora and a misbeh and a once we
had a synagogue and a study hall a
school and a kindergarten and a talora
and now none of these are left all we
have is our memories and the many
pictures that are minutes to level a
house
and three hours to uproot an entire
community
conflating emotions and realities within
the soul of the Jew.
The notion of loss of not only
individual.
We miss our leaders.
We miss our communities.
And we mourn their destruction
and the great gift of everyone to
ultimately return home.
Kina Y.
Hey,
There you are.
Kiny Alfono
Aloshio
of Salv would describe this is one of
the most authentic kinos. A kina that
comes straight from Anavi by Yakon Yio
Yoshio
terror ultimately assassinated by palace
guards and Yoshio takes over. He's only
eight years old
and we're told that for 18 years he does
not see a safer Torah. We literally have
a shinishba running the Jewish people
discovers the safer Torah in the B
mikdash
yakim who does not hold up the words of
this of this Torah
and the Ramb explains the Ramb wasn't in
the part referring to the mel
and when shows this to Yoshio he is
unbelievably inspired and he decides to
in growth in Torah and Mitsmos as there
was in the days of Yoshio
and then
things began to go and often these
nations are both hostile to the Jewish
people and who is in the middle who's in
the middle is Israel the leader of Mit
your country that's all we want we just
want to use the road not the one with
the toll right we want to use the free
one right just let us go straight up the
country, you know, imagine, you know, in
the United States, we have a country to
the south of us, we have a country to
the north of us. So if Mexico wanted to
wage war on Canada so Yoshio, he's the
king of Kel and he says, "There's no way
I'm letting him do this." Why? Because
Yosho believed
of the blessing
that not only would you not be attacked,
but that a sword would not pass through.
We've had advancement, but the
condition, the spiritual condition of
Clai Israel is not exactly where you may
perceive it to be. As the Gamarra
explains, people still hated the doors
would open. There would be no presence
of a bodhisara. when they would close,
they would be featured there for the the
people in the homes to be able to
worship. When we look at our community
and we look at our society and we look
at our religiosity
and we should with great pride.
We become complacent
to the notion that sometimes there are
underlying values
that behind closed doors are actually
sense as somewhat of a uh somewhat of a
of a
distraction
for what Yoshio is killed.
And as he dies a very horrible and
gruesome death, 300 arrows fired into
him. His last words are it's not just a
kina on the loss of this leader.
Y Mio is keen on Yoshio is a kina on the
potential of this leader invent the
Yo re recognized within Yoshio
unbelievable aspirational powers of
vision sense of grander
Mio is devastated because this is the
last light before the descent into the
abyss that would ultimately of you and
the makoma miktosh
But your mo recognizes that there are
individuals
who their loss represent the darkness
the my could have become a chakras where
the sun could have risen
but is as a result of our own
complacency
and our own in about the individual
and we know that the kinos of your mo
are so poignant especially in a that
middle peri
I'm the one that wittly on the Jewish
people
a story is told by Rabbi Salvich
that when Sadat when Anoir Sadat was
deciding whether or not to him I have
total confidence that we're going to win
and he says to him what makes you so
confident and he pulls out a Sadd matter
just look at the picture
it's a picture of one soldier that they
lost entire country is mourning the loss
of one soldier
and he says to him if this country can
be brought to its knees with the loss of
in strength through the casualties that
are inevitable with war
what Sadat did not understand
is and the same focus that we have on
every individual who's lost to the world
of
parallels to our love and
In 1948 when the state was declared
whitesman
he made a declaration he made a
statement the state will not be given to
the Jewish people on a silver platter.
the silver platter.
The toll on Israel in the war of 48. We
lost 6,373
souls. And Nathan Alterman
composed a poem that's read all over
Israel
on Yumazi Karon and it's called the
silver pl. Uniqueness of the miracle.
Readied they wait beneath the moon
wrapped in awesome joy before the light.
Then soon a girl and boy step faking day
and fired night, unwashed, weary until
death, not knowing rest, but wearing
youth like dew drops in their hair.
And they reply,
"We are the silver platter upon which
the Jewish state was served to you." is
behind
letters that give insight and
appreciation
of Aayakon Mio also
insight commitment and courage and the
ability to move the Jewish people
forward.
Ben Zusman 22 from Yushelle than me
right now. I am happy and grateful for
the privilege of defending our beautiful
country and people of Israel. I won't
allow you to sink into sadness and of
the country.
Yoseph Gitritz, 25-year-old high-tech
entrepreneur from Tel Aviv.
Dear people and I have no regrets,
the reality of their life of the moment,
but to pause and think of what would be,
what could have been,
there's a fascinating insight. 80%
perished in the period of leaving
Mitsarim.
So some of the farim are very very
troubled by this fact to that way.
And is it really possible that that many
millions of people perished?
And I once saw in the safer azir to a
population number that would have been
the descendants of those who did.
If you want to know how many people were
lost in Britain, look at the good they
would have done. Look at the they would
have engaged in. Look at the communities
they would have built. Look at all the
different contributions they would have
made for generations. But about the
losses that we encounter, we cannot just
look at the loss of the individual
themselves.
And especially when we're given such in
for Israel, who knows what would have
accomplished if that had been pointed at
the bin of the Bikdash and not its our
experience of tishab of our experience
of that their story that their
contribution that their reality speaks
to us.
I'm sorry.
You're going to need something.
Hey,
Kino Zion page 361.
This is a keynote that depicts
the abayas
in its most inner
tragic and horrific reality.
The moments that the sar, the moments
that the enemies of the Jewish people
penetrate biffim,
the whole notion of is depicted in our
magashana
as something that exists from the very
externals of our existence
and then proceeds inwards
and tishabove the mikdash is of course
set ablaze.
The whole momentum of the destruction
is moving progressively inwards. poetic
and
soaring language,
the cruelty
and the shock.
One of the heroes of the Jewish people
that we have come to know in the last
number of months is a man named Ellie
Sharabi.
Hel his capture, his time as a hostage,
his being freed.
Thank the Kurtses for bringing it back
for me from Israel.
The notion of
was something that they contended with
for many many years.
Rockets coming reality often was.
It was cataclysmic
when all of the sudden everyone realized
Zahar as a that is described in
antiquity
in this kina
came forward as a legacy
when the kamas terrorist 9 a.m. the red
alerts began to come through on lean's
phone. I told her not to worry it'll be
over soon. Minutes later, we heard the
terrorists explosions
and then we heard terrorists at the
door. We had no weapons, no way to fight
back. Leon and I made a decision. We
would not screaming for the terrorists
to stop. And suddenly there were 10
terrorists inside my home.
They took our phones. Two of them
grabbed me beyond anything I've ever
felt.
Then I knew I was being taken. As they
dragged me out, I called out to my
girls, "I will be back."
My peaceful home, my slice of heaven was
gone. I saw over a hundred terrorists
filming themselves celebrating,
laughing, ribs bruised. When we arrived
in Gaza, a mob of civilians
tried to lynch me. They pulled me from
the car, but the 10 days I was held in
an apartment and I was tied up with
ropes.
My arms and legs were tied so tightly
that the ropes tore into my flesh. I was
given me into a tunnel 50 m underground
again. The chains were so tight they
ripped my skin. They never took them
off. Not for a single moment. Those
begin to describe the agony. I was fed a
piece of pizza a day, maybe a sip of
tea. Hunger consumed everything. They
beat me. They broke my greatest gift in
the world. We had to beg for food, beg
for the bathroom. Begging was our
existence. We strategized over every
meal. At any moment, they could kill
you. You wake up every day. You do not
know if you will be able to eat. You
don't know the time.
And you think so desperately how you
want to shower on Oel,
who is now 24 years old.
We had already endured terrible
captivity.
We rely one day a terrorist took his
anger out on me and he stormed in and
beat me so badly he broke my ribs. I
couldn't breathe properly for months.
in his book about the moments that he
was released,
the moments that Ellie was released
closer to alone and we're standing one
in front of the other and we're hugging
out of here
because they were taking Ellie out and
they were holding Alone hostage.
Alone.
I promised him.
I'm gonna speak with them.
I'm gonna tell them about you.
I'm gonna strengthen them.
Don't stop believing.
Heli Sharabi was released on February
8th, 2020. Excited to see his children,
knowing very well
what the ultimate outcome was
and terrible ceremony that kamas set up.
He describes how he was determined to do
exactly what they said because he did
not want to deviate from this. wouldn't
be able to describe where the tunnels
were that were holding the hostages.
And he describes after being given this
clean set of clothes, oh,
and as they as they uh got into the car
with the Red Cross, the Red Cross
started to Where you been?
He shall take it.
And she was silent.
We didn't hear from you. We didn't see
you. You didn't worry about us.
You didn't come to visit.
Let us come.
He describes the final moments,
Israeli flag,
and he walked up. He got into the car
with the soldier. Shalomi.
When they were going on the way to meet
the soldiers,
I finally saw an Israeli soldier.
I saw the blue and white flag.
I recognize you.
You're in safe hands now.
I look at her.
imat. They'll tell you
together
so that he could be able to greet his
mother.
He reflects and he talks about the pain
that he was experiencing.
Aniba and here I here I come to what it
was like to finally see them.
They asked him before he came out if he
wanted to wear an Israeli flag and
towards his family.
And he writes about how he reflects in
the very very end of the book in the
very last page.
They were buried because Bere was no
longer at the time.
And uh they took him to the graves
and I see that the fields around the
graves are quiet.
The sky is blue.
I start to cry
and I fall onto my knees. Loro Alan.
All I could see was the names engraved
in these graves on the floor.
Akareimot
is the only reason the Jewish people are
still here and the only reason that we
are sitting here together today because
for generations our Ellie Shar looked at
me. Really? You want to go
nigmar towards the exit of the cemetery.
This is the bottom.
Chicken.
There it goes.
This is a kina that
in graphic detail
depicts the horrors of
horrors that are unimaginable. Horrors
that are
seen just biblical in their historic
reality
and horrors some of which
we have encountered.
And Rashi explains that they are singled
out because of the depth of their
decadence. And the Sofur asks a very
simple question. anything that the
ben eritz mitim do or the ben eritz
kanan do any of their masim that are
that are provided to kalis
and the sofur explains
that this isn't about the particular
violations
that are standing that the Jewish people
do not look to others in order to
concretize
our framework of are issues that are
brewing that motivate nations to comport
themselves in such a way that even when
we're aligned, we're not the same.
Profanity
is
there is a division. There is a hdah. It
emerges not just as a
ideology and not just even as a culture
and not just as a manif when we remember
that the civilians on this side and the
civilians on this side we're not the
same. We're not the same. the parents on
this. It's not just the horrors
and it's not just those that execute on
these barbaric acts. There is a
fundamental particular contexts that we
find ourselves and we have to remember
that
here in Gulas America
because here we in Kum are not the same
and our commitment to goodness and their
commitment to goodness are not the same
but it's not ultimately built on a
foundation
of surrender and commitment and loyalty
to a rabbon
But
all of the sudden we can encounter even
in our reality even in the United States
of America an ascending anti-semitism
they are not uses
we expect more of ourselves even when
pushed
we expect of ourselves not to respond
the same way
when those who lash out because they've
from the mainstream of Kali Israel is
ferocious
because there is a certain anchor that
we have in living our lives of society
and of what destruction can do and this
is something that we've seen
the Bibbas October of 2023
the end of October only a few weeks
after the war began
It was actually I think even before
striving to give expression to the pain
of the Jewish people of Israel
and a disproportionate
that was constructed out of an iron
cage.
I remember seeing
a table that was set.
I remember seeing the play pen that was
set up
was sent to his sister at 9:45 a.m. on
October 7th. He had been texting on and
off for hours with his sister describing
the waves of
Shiri grew up in near O.
She walked she worked as a teacher on
the kibbutz
who's described as fun and obsessed with
Batman as we're all familiar with.
And then Kafir described by his
relatives as a laid-back baby and his
sister would joke that the family called
Ariel and Kafir the first Yemenite
redheads.
Shiri and Yardin were tired of the rock.
6:30 a.m. he wrote of the rockets of
described of October 7th. And throughout
the morning as thousands of terrorists
invaded Israel, Yarden updated his
sister. He and Shiri were trying to keep
the boys quiet so that the terrorists
wouldn't hear them, but they were kids.
They were babies and they were too young
to be silent.
And there is fight the terrorists
invading his home.
They injured Yard and they brought him
into Gaza.
And the day Yard turned 30. And later we
found three additional pictures. And in
one of them you could see the terrorists
strangling him with one hand and holding
a hammer in another somewhere and he
just looks defeated.
Kamas released a propaganda video of
Shiri and the children.
Bibbas was nine months old.
He became the youngest captive that day.
About a month later, Kamas announced
Yaren was kept in brutal conditions and
two months into his captivity, he was
told that his wife and his children were
dead.
Often he was held inside a cage
in an airless tunnel and beaten by his
captors going long stretches without
food.
Hadina Moshe, 72year-old Israeli woman
who was taken captive from near O
described seeing Yardain in a kamas
tunnel. Are you being punished because
you confronted Hamas?
Yard asked her if he she had any
information about his wife and children
and she did not. They released him with
the definitive fate of his family still
unknown.
Ariel and Kafir
came to symbolize kids dressing up in
Batman on Purim,
redhead days.
Who could forget those days?
Those days that seemed like total
darkness.
that shabas that we felt like
how many capit of tahill were said for
these two children
whose future never came to be.
When the Israeli officers opened the
coffin of Shiri, they discovered that it
was not her.
Just elongating the pain by the brutal
and horrific and murderous hands of
kamas themselves.
and a people who through this family
connected with the children of the
entirety of Amnisurel
assaulted towards the Jewish people.
the invasion of their home, the
capturing of the family, the terror
inflicted in the moments, the
all of this revealing
the essence of evil that characterizes
and underlies
wouldn't daven for, that we wouldn't
dress up for Purim for, that we wouldn't
do mitzvos for, that we wouldn't build
for. most heart-wrenching
dimensions of the kinos
of this period of Jewish history.
But they also rallied a kadesh bar that
may not have resulted in their salvation
are accumulating for a broader salvation
that we will want.
Foremen.
Alf speaks of the harugus.
As we know, the enemies of the Jewish
people appreciate well
that the eternality of Ami Israel is
contingent not just on the survival of
the nation itself,
but since so much of our vitality is
rooted and anchored in living our values
of Torah and the study of Torah in the
depth of Torah that ultimately
the ability of Clai Israel
to persist and endure in resilience in
growth and in advancement
is based upon our connection to our
leaders to our Torah leaders. Arvano
Nadira at Torah depicts
in Roman times the execution of
a number of different decrees that were
issued in particular during the era of
Hadrien
continued to persist and continued to be
able to skin off his body and when he
reached this makatillain he let out such
a screamo
And those that were watching him, the
Gimar says were declaring
the Oios
as almost a but you cannot destroy the
Oios. You can't destroy the letters, the
meaning, the messages, the essence and
the eternal impact of Torah that perhaps
we could also relate to.
This year marks 10 years
since Atam Henen was killed with his
wife fire on their car
killing the parents.
Something happened and the children were
spared. Four young sons including
the children of great Barb Torah both's
father and his mother who bring so much
Torah into the world. Hen the history of
and we have a number of his farm a
number of his articles that he had
written before the attack
even in the safer that was published
safer that explores aspects of Shabas
the oft
with great joy and with great
trepidation I bring forward before the
students of Torah and the scholars of
Torah
domo of those that we've lost.
And so this kino of arono nad atra
captures not only the loss of miso
recreated and reconstituted and
regenerated with great difficulty and
often a lot of confusion
because of the particular suffering of
the gon that it's true that these
individuals live their lives and they
are so precious and so treasured and so
necessary so compelling and so vital
and within everything we bring to our
world of Torah.
Halon
Who would have
Banana.
Got this.
They are
coming.
Thank you.
Kina Kav. Vavos.
This is a keynote that is written by
Rabzar.
Yodimos
here is sitting there. He has no more
words. See, of Jewish leaders, go call
to Abram, to Yitzk, to Yakov, to Moshe
from their shame yodim likos Jewish
people. And each of them even though
they have their own dimension
of contribution to the building of Kali
Israel and different aspects of
religious life that comprise each and
every Jew, the Abra themed of Abraham,
the Guru of the Emac,
he finds himself unsuccessful
until he reaches one particular
individual
and that is
herself stands up before
and she says
and he was willing to work for seven
years.
And when my time came to be able
that I was willing
offer
and if me a simple to take my place and
the explained it wasn't just letting her
get married first that Rael was
basically sacrif sacrificing a dimension
of contra all merciful.
Why are you acting in such a manner that
you are jealous of these
at that moment whose mercy was aroused
because of you I will read children
There is hope
explains that was willing to give up a
piece of her destiny
for unity
that Ra was willing to not that she
didn't need it for herself
and that Rael therefore becomes
the selfless one of our instead of Maris
Marisah.
is for those whose destiny has been
reached.
Rael is always on the road
and to and to empower and to support and
to care for and to love the Jewish
people as we make our way to an journey
and not to necessarily live for the
outcome. That is the of
St. Aza.
That morning he was stationed at an IDF
base east of Ashkalone. And when the
attack began, he and the rest of his
team were Amikhai's commander.
Ali Adani was shot and seriously
wounded. And Amikhai pulled him and got
him to an evacuation vehicle
up of his destiny in order to help
someone else with a volley of bullets.
And neither of them survived.
and in a I still can't cry about you.
I'm not there yet. I haven't yet
completely grasped that we won't ever
speak again. Although I'm strong when
fighting the monsters out. I was 13
years old and mainly not letting myself
break. I'm constantly looking forward.
But every time I close my eyes, I see
you carrying our injured command.
Difficult hours. Your eyes were always
combing the area, searching for how to
do something for someone else to support
whoever needed it. and your heart, your
massive heart.
After the war, the first trip I take
with my wife will be to see your
parents. I'm going to ug your father for
you. And I think it's best.
He writes different. You saw her as a
real friend. Every experience we had
together, you would say you needed to
tell your mom. We were often surprised
by your relationship. You would answer,
"I couldn't hear very well because of
the horror all around us. So you shouted
to me, "Remember for whom and for what
we are fighting." And even more than
your words, I remember the L surrounded
by a burning hell. There was a moment
when my knees buckled. All the commotion
around us was beyond my capabilities.
But then I looked in your direction. I
saw you soldier go into a house. And you
and I take cover. I was a bit scared.
And your battle in battle you're not
supposed to be scared. You're not
supposed to think about the fear. But
you were there. And I draw straight you
in every breath. You and God were best
friends, maybe even better friends than
you and your mom.
You had internal knowledge that there is
a leader of this world is what is true
humility internal and what it means to
love your fellow man to love your
homeland. I'm thinking again and again
how in the weeks before your death we
talked about a civil and that's the
starting point. Amai you were like a
brother to me. I remember the moment in
which you understood that the commander
had been wounded and without thinking to
his wounds and you hope and pray that
the rivers of blood would stop and then
came the end massive fire in our
direction you didn't even manage to say
I've been it and then that a letter from
the team and that's it
since then more than 45 days have passed
every morning I quickly dunked fill in
from my wife but my wife would agree on
this point sometimes I even think you
are an angel in the form of a man. I'm
sure that your light will continue to
shine their world. Brother, I miss you
so much.
Foreign
speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech.
Hallelujah.
Kino Lamid Alif
H2
No keynote today probably captures more
poignantly
the vacasillating reality of this kufa
of Jewish history that we've been
speaking about so much.
Who would have imagined two years ago
the pain and the tragedy of hostages, of
people killed in their homes, killed in
the fields, killed at a concert?
Who would have imagined all of the
brutality and all of the pain?
And who would have also imagined
a
mostly defeated Hezbollah,
a compromised Syria,
and what we witnessed in the Nissan
that Israel would have the courage to
and the success
of attacking Iran.
The kina is about Jewish history. And
then Marra writes that Jewish history is
always in one of these two places.
It's in a place of redemptive energy and
it's
in a place of tragic energy.
And the convergence of these two is part
of what creates the cycle and the spiral
of our historical experience.
It's fascinating that
Ravosh Shapiro points out
the Gumar Sakim writes,
I was discussing this very question with
my father a few weeks ago. Is Roshesh
called a moed?
Is Roshesh called a moed? So the Garra
says that Roshesh is called a moedeshik
moed. How do we know is called
that we that we offer the roesh on as
well
that is called a moed. How do I know
that is called a moade?
The gar says
a from
that we call of this a moade.
So asks
Shapiro this is your source for relating
toes
theukim of
so he explains so be for cloud Israel is
the concept of his
is the notion that when you look up into
the dark and empty sky space we're able
to create an experience of renewal of
isus
and every month we experience a sense of
that transition and therefore we could
start new. We could start again. The
moon starting again, the cycle starting
again. And cl Israel brings that is
forward. Brings that that sense of
trends. We had earthquakes but now you
have earthquakes. So I'm over that.
So
So uh we had we had it all the time.
But
what I do appreciate that I didn't have
was not necessarily the seasons
themselves and the leaves are changing
and it tells you Yantiff's coming.
There's a transition, a new year, a new
academic year is starting
once in a while share those feelings
with the shul.
As much as I don't enjoy the cult, but
there's nothing in the world like thing
and you start to see leaves on the trees
and flowers coming and the transition of
seasons gives us an opportunity in an
immersive manner
of Mosha Shapiro. What Kazal understood,
the reason why Khazal anchored this in
Migillas a is because in the history of
the Jew of some of our most profoundly
tragic realities
that we find the strength and the
opportunity
the talent in lifestyles of it is what
it is but to interject a sense of is
that just because last month I wasn't
into learning doesn't the definition of
our entire rel relationship doesn't mean
it has to be the definition of this
month.
Just because last month I found my
doesn't mean it has to be the experience
of this month.
That's the power of
doesn't only come doesn't only come from
the elating eye points of achievement.
His kajas comes from the strain and
consternation and pressure and loss and
necessity
often of tragedy and challenge.
And so Roshesh's anchor as a moed is in
the world of a itselfish
of night and seder night share the same
day of the week.
tells us in we know that to be true
because just like we had this awkward
shallis that we had right before the s
of
if you recall a number of months ago
that was the only other time everyone
ate shallis
we had a very awkward shalashis right
before the start of seder night
and so as a result there's this
connection between our tragedies and our
redemption, our compromise and our
aspiration.
I shared with the shul that over 20
years ago I was standing with one of my
closest friends whose name is John Mel
in a classified briefing room of an
Israeli air force base. We had landed in
Benguran to participate in a mission
that was coordinated by the OU.
And we were picked up at the airport
by a very good friend or the husband of
someone that John and I knew became a
very good friend. We'll say his name is
Elon.
And from the airport, he decided to take
us to his base. And from this base, he
was in charge of flying missions and
training pilots on Hercules aircraft.
That's what he did.
In fact, he'd allow us to board one of
the Hercules aircraft and experience
what it's like to be inside.
Looks kind of like tower air.
He was involved with all of the
logistics
in plane refueling.
What it means for a fighter jet that has
to fly very far across the world and it
needs to refuel in the middle. So, it
can't just stop. another plane can come
and refuel it in the middle of the sky.
You can imagine it's not the easiest
thing to accomplish. This was his
expertise. In this briefing room, and
this was 20 years ago, he showed John
and I on a map that we probably were not
supposed to see, but everyone's family
in Israel, a country that they were
flying missions to and from, and it was
a friendly country. So I asked him why
are you practicing flying to that
particular country when
we have good relations with this
country. So he had me put one finger on
that country and one finger on Israel.
And then he said hold the distance
between these two places. And I said
okay. And then he said move the finger
one over Israel and one over Iran. And
it was identical.
Over 20 years later, those training
flights were put into operational motion
as we all witnessed Israel's preemptive
attack on the genocidal and evil regime
of Iran.
And we watched
as pilot after pilot got in their
planes.
One of them, I heard a story from
someone who knows the individual.
One of them got married that night,
got a call. Someone came over to him
while he was sitting with the kala at
the table and said to him, "We're
going."
That's it. He put on his uniform and he
looked at his wife who he had just
married minutes ago in her wedding dress
and he said to her, "I have to go."
And within hours he was in a plane over
Iran.
And these pilots
were incredible.
But as incredible, more incredible was
the dish than that we witnessed
the whole experience beginning
with Prime Minister Nano at this year's
Tanakh.
Our family is big into Tanakh
and the Prime Minister always gets to
ask the last question on the in the
Israeli competition.
So this year the prime minister, he's
standing in the Israeli competition.
This is in May. This is an Matsm. No one
knows nothing from nothing. And he looks
at these kids who had studied and
memorized Tanak and at all these
families and he says to them,
"What puk best summarizes this last year
of the war
and they're knocking back different
ideas and then they come to the Rosham
Shalah and they say, "Rosal, what puzzle
do you think sums up the war?"
And with a twinkle in his eye, he
answered.
only months later to put the very same
phrase into the Kotel Hamaravi as at
Fila
for the success of a mission that would
be named with this particular calling
the rising lion of the Jewish people
and the pilots relate
their roles moment
from one of the pilots I'll always
remember the moon that night. It was
brilliant crescent shining and rising
just as we flew deep, illuminating the
pitch black night, recalls Major S, a
combat pilot, speaking over the moment
that he flew over enemy skies.
My family knows that I was part of the
attack, but the exact details I can't
share. It's tough from a distance, and
even for those who parents are here,
it's difficult to talk about our
experience and what we're going through.
But each one shared what it was like to
feel like they represented the entirety
of the Jewish people flying deep into
Iran.
There will be plenty of time to share
experiences, he writes to his family, to
laugh and to cry. In the opening sorty,
I was chosen to lead a formation of
dozens of planes.
We were the first to enter deep into
Iran and I was the first of the first
formation and that's how we received the
most dangerous mission.
And he writes about what the feelings
what the emotions were
bringing forth this ultimate outcome.
And alongside this mimit moment were the
hundreds and hundreds of missiles that
were pointed to and some of them
penetrating the air defenses of Israel.
rendering thousands of people homeless,
taking the lives of a number of people,
plunging the Jewish people into a sense
of trepidation and it became almost a
cycle. Your phone would ring or it would
buzz and we were attacking Iran and then
the phone would buzz and they were
attacking us and then the phone would
buzz and someone was raising money. Then
the phone would buzz. We were attacking
Iran. Then the phone would buzz. Iran is
attacking us. Then the phone would buzz.
Someone's raising. This was the This was
the This was life. And for those who
were there, for those who had family
there, we would watch watch this like a
hawk. Our children there, our siblings
there,
some people in this room there. And
there was tremendous sense of uh
unbelievable
fear. It's it's it's not nothing.
The convergence
of the sense of power and the sense of
redemptive energy and at the same time
the vulnerability that comes forth as
well from living in that in that very
serious and very very profound reality.
As we recite this kina,
we think about all of the
moments. We think about all of the
moments. We think about the we think
about the roes.
We think about the Jewish people and the
costs
that we have paid. And we think about
the Jewish people and the remarkable
achievements and advancements that we
have seen and we have experienced. And
we appreciate for just a moment to be
standing in the gates of history. It's
such a profound profound moment in Cl
Israel's journey.
Mo
is name
my
Say
tness.
I have
me
I am
sing
Holy Ghost
is
trying. Stay singing.
One final kina before eliton
kina lammed vavv.
Seion. Hello Shali. Surely
you'll inquire after the well-being of
your
imprisoned ones. Dier Schlomeer
Aday,
those who seek your well-being and are
the remnant of your flock.
One of the most extraordinary realities
of that 12-day war with Iran,
beyond the performance of the military,
beyond the home front,
individuals that kept everyone safe
unlike any other
nation on earth that is at war where
when people find themselves far away
trying to get back to Israel.
So Alal understood this. The other
airlines could not understand what was
going on. that Jews, no matter what it
took, in order to get back to Erit
Israel, in order to get back to a
nation, in order to get back to a
country that was spending much of its
night in bombshism
to Erit Israel
that draws the Jewish people home in any
and in all circumstances, no matter what
the Eats, Israel is itself presented as
a future driving reality.
refers to the element there are future
energy to Israel that draws people in a
manner that is beyond whatever the
pragmatic considerations members of our
community as members of arul
have detached themselves from what
sometimes becomes a little bit of a
heavy footing
they are dishion they pursued they
pursue Israel
I shared in the shul many times that in
our own family siblings so now twothirds
of us are in Israel and I remember that
we were all standing as a family at
Newark airport to see them off we happen
to be a very emotional family and I was
really expecting
this whole experience to be like one of
the worst glasser
light and
you know they had all their luggage
ready to go. Nephes Benevich is there
holding the signs. I forgot what the
sign. They help with so much stuff. Have
Ari comes here so often from Neesh
Benev.
And we're standing at the airport and
their kids are like and I was waiting
for the balling to like start
and there were some tears. There were
definitely some you know it was hard. It
was a perude. It was we were we were
saying goodbye. When there's confusion,
comes when there's billable
the just it's it's it's so overwhelming
that like you're crying. It's so
overwhelming,
but there's there's a destabilization
that's setting in of to have them live
across the world.
But it wasn't sad
because it was right
because it is I met with a couple of
months ago here in this shul
with his family told me that his father
brought their family Jew should be. This
is where a Jew should be.
And since this is where a Jew should be
when you get on the plane, even if it's
from Newark, the way they should be.
And that's why it's so important for all
of us who are living through a
generation and are living through a life
experience where threatened to see it
fight back to see it suffer to see it
advance to see it conquer and to see it
struggle
to see the faith mention of Jewish
history that they are living in the raw
and that we are living online.
There is an aspect of what is unfolding
and not just the pain but the engaged
with that we are watching.
There is an aspect of this reality that
has presented itself in front of us and
has asked each of what are we doing here
if we have this opportunity and this
option
and why do we continue to build and to
entrench and to advance?
What are we doing here?
So everybody has a when there's a knock
at the door. We've had knocks on our
door. And each and every one of us have
to sit for moments with our family and
to ask ourselves each and every year,
what are we doing here? And maybe
there's an answer to that question.
There should be a disha. There should be
an investigation. There should be a
thought. There's a knock at the door. We
can't just wow what an amazing word we
blew away. There has to be some sense of
like connection that this is where we
are naturally meant to be and this is
the unnatural disposition forward from
that and that is real and that is true
and that is important
but as the Maharal writes a Jew always
has to know this is unnatural this is
not right of the Jewish people and for
us to make what's unnatural natural in
order to somehow sanitize the sense of
pressure or guilt in lives of Torah and
of and we do we need organizations and
institutions and spaces where that can
be accomplished
but we have to know that all of that is
un that's where Israel belongs and
that's hello
I always like to share at this point
whose apartment I had the opportunity to
be in and I had a chance to meet him I
ded with him and I got to speak to him a
little it may hear a story but from the
perspective of his older brother
and in that book he talks about the
moments
where they came to Eris Israel and he
talks about the moment child who was 5
years old but looked like he was only
three or even younger and for three
years I served as father and mother and
guardian and protector to my younger
brother to safety and to ensure the
continuation of our family's rabbitic
dynasty that is what kept kept me alive
and gave me the will to continue
fighting for our lives with my younger
brother in front of the Western Wall in
USA in the holiest site in the world for
Jews and we we recited Mina together
48 years
this time he was praying
just two hours before his anticipated
election to the highest rabbitical post
in is close and felt tears welling up in
my eyes as I left the wall I fel felt
profound relief as if a heavy burden had
been lifted from my shouldfillment of
the mission of the Jewish people
all chance that we can. We have to make
it the fulfillment of our mission as
well. See you on Hello T.
employee welcome.
final kina.
Me
elitimo
a lament
and her cities
like a woman who is in labor.
And Salvich would point out that the
imagery of a woman in labor
as a concluding
picture of the world of Tishabove
resonates
with our perspective
in understanding
that the Jewish historical experience
that we have focused on over the course
of this morning and part of this
afternoon
is painful
and is traumatizing
and is difficult to hear,
difficult to know and difficult to
experience.
But we that Israel is ultimately
currently within an experience of of
birth of giving life to new related to
that mid
and we take from that
energy for the entirety of the year.
We grab Torah
from sukus.