TNL in Jerusalem - Jewish Courage of Esther Jungreis

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] master [Music] [Applause] [Music] heart [Applause] she [Applause] are most Jews in Israel have a very real and direct connection to the pain of yam hazikaron we've lost friends and we've lost family and for many the pain is still so real and the wounds are are still open as this yum haikan was approaching for me the faces of many of my fellow soldiers and my friends who have died in the Army were flying through my head and I remembered the uncontrollable weeping my uncontrollable Weeping at their feet funerals and how traumatic it was for me on such a fundamental level and I found myself afraid that if Yik when it comes I may break down again and in some ways I was even more scared that I wouldn't because in so many ways I feel like the the sorrow and that pain is my connection to them my relationship with them our our sages tell us in of our [Music] fathers any love that is dependent on something if you nullify that something then the love is gone but if it's not dependent on anything that love lasts forever the word in Hebrew for love is a and the root is hav which means to give true love is giving unconditionally without the expectation or the desire for anything in return and that is why we cry onikon because of the true AA and the M nephesh the self-sacrifice of all of our soldiers who gave their very lives so we could have ours I only understood really what mut nees was when I enrolled in the Israeli Army I moved to Israel when I was 12 years old and as soon as I moved here immediately I started thinking I'm going to be a soldier I can't wait in my entire life I was waiting 12 13 14 High School After High School I spent about 3 years in yiva the entire time I Was preparing myself spiritually to go into the army as a spiritual light that I'd be able to influence all of the people around me that don't come from the same background that I come from and I went into the army and immediately I had my eyes I wanted to be a commander there was nothing that I wanted more than that I woke up earlier than everyone else I went to sleep later than everyone else I did everything that I could to rise the ranks in the Israeli Army and bar hasem within one year I became a class commander and I had 15 of my own soldiers and I thought to myself my goodness what could I be doing at such a young age that would be better than what I'm doing right now what would be a greater service to my country a greater service to my people a greater service to Hashem what could I possibly be doing at such a young age that would be better than leading a group of 15 Jewish Warriors to defend our Biblical and historical Homeland what else could I be doing in my life that would be better for that I woke up every day shining with excitement knowing that there was nothing that I could be doing that would be better I woke up every day energized excited it was the happiest time of my life in September of 20 the antifa broke out my unit givati was based out of the Gaza Strip and just as it is now it was then it was the hot bed of all Terror day in and day out we fought and we battled ruthless terrorists that want nothing but to destroy us and it doesn't matter if you're tall if you're short if you're a child if you're old if you're Jewish you're dead and it was our job to put our lives in front of the the lives of my family and my friends we battled every day of course in every battle there are always casualties and a soldier in my sister unit was killed and because of my higher ranking I was asked to carry his coffin to carry him to his final resting place I'd never been to a funeral before most of my family were killed in the Holocaust there not many gimpel around anymore every Jewish law every Jewish tradition in the Israeli Army are all run by strict Jewish law and as long as the body is not dead there need to be two men that stand by that body out of respect I was chosen to be one of those two men so for that time I sat and I recited all of the tahim all of the Psalms that I Knew by heart to give Comfort to the soul that was there the ride from the cemetery house to the cemetery was supposed to be about 20 minutes it ended up being almost 2 hours so for 2 hours I sat in the back of a Jeep with My Dead Brother 19 years old lying at my feet wrapped in a prayer Shaw in a taled draped with an Israeli flag over him so for two hours I had to sit and think for two hours I was asking Hashem I was like why 2,000 years we've been suffering we've been put up put through so much why do we have to do this we're finally back in Israel can't we finally just live in peace can't they leave us alone already why is this happening the doors to the Jeep opened and the mother of this Soldier threw herself on the coffin screaming the same question why in international media the Israeli soldiers look like these big Husky men nameless oppressors in reality they're 18 years old they're little boys they're boys dressed up as Israeli soldiers instead of going to college in Israel you go to the Israeli Army and it doesn't matter if you're dressed up as a soldier or not when a mother loses her 18-year-old boy it destroys her it destroys their entire family we were ordered not to show any emotion to do our jobs as professionally as possible and then to go back to our line of duty but every time we were at the funeral I kept on imagining that it wasn't this boy's mother but it was my mother it was my father it was my brothers that were kneel down right over the grave crying we were ordered not to cry but how do you stop tears I was devastated I'd never been to a funeral before I'd never been so close to death it was probably one of the most traumatic experiences of my life that was the first funeral the second week was another funeral the week after that there was a third funeral now by the third funeral I started coming apart I was just a kid all of my soldiers were looking to me for answers and I definitely didn't have any on the way back home from the third funeral I opened up my Commander's pad and I wrote a letter to American jewry and in a nutshell I asked them how do you live with yourselves how do you live with yourselves knowing that we're here in Israel fighting for your country fighting for your future fighting for your Redemption and you're at home watching CNN and watching friends in Seinfeld how would you not do anything to us this was before any Israel day parades or any conferences in the beginning of 2000 no one even knew what was happening in Israel and we felt like we were all alone I sent this letter to a couple of Jewish newspapers in the Southeast where I came from and I received back such a response I received a response from Jews All Over America from non-jews All Over America all of them saying that they pray for us all of them saying that they love us all of them saying that they support us all of them wishing that they could be there with us it's not the world's fault that they don't know what to think about Israel or that they think poorly about Israel they never see the real Israel they never see our pain they never see our side of the story and tonight we want to show the world the real Israel we want to show the world the Jewish people a people that has suffered so much all we want is peace all we pray for is Shalom all we've ever wanted is to live peacefully in our homeland tonight we want to share our pain with the entire world we want to share our sadness with you because those who cry with Israel will inevitably celebrate with us we're on a one track way to Redemption and all of these obstacles that are before us are nothing compared to our beautiful history of 2,000 years we're on a track to Redemption and they'll be forces to try to stop us but the Jewish people are here to say we're not going to stop we're going to keep on keeping on like we always have we're in Eternal people with a majestical destiny tonight we have isi fer with us the director of Israel national radio he served as a platoon Sergeant in the Israeli Army in the paratroopers please everyone welcome isi fer as he shares his heart and his story with you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all Shalom everybody it's an honor to be with you here on yumaz zikaron I wrote an essay about some of my experiences and I thought that'll be uh appropriate to share it with you because it's on this very topic and it's called zikaron which means memory if you didn't know it means memory in March of 1995 my friends and I were drafted to the Israeli Army we had passed some grueling tests and were accepted to the paratrooper Brigade that's anim the image of the red Berets liberating the Western Wall was fused into our psyches and more more than anything we wanted to serve our country honorably and to the best of our abilities six painful months of basic training were ahead of us in this period of time our minds and bodies were converted from civilian use and became the property of the IDF we learned to push the the envelope of our individual human capacity and to harness the great strength inherent in an indivisible platoon all this time we kept our sights to the final day of basic training in which we would hike 86 km in utter Silence full infantry gear up to Gat that's ammunition Hill in Jerusalem where many paratroopers had perished in 1967 and there we would receive our very own red Berets and finally be inducted into the ranks of the paratroopers however one F One Fine Day in May barely 3 months after we began basic training our Pitbull likee sergeant major came into our Barracks with a large box we had no clue what its contents were the sergeant major proceeded to open the box and much to our surprise unveiled red Berets for each one of us in the platoon you don't deserve to be paratroopers yet he told us but tomorrow you will leave the base and think of yourselves as full-fledged SIM for one day you will not get to keep these he added but wear them with pride and respect well the next day yikon Memorial Day and the whole of the paratrooper Brigade thousands of men would be released for one day to attend one of the many commemorations of fallen soldiers that take place in our tiny Nation each one of us was given precise directions to the cemetery and a plot number was also given to us we were told that the plot Number corresponded to the grave of a fallen paratrooper we were ordered to stand next to that grave and next to the family of a young man who was once just like ourselves wearing our red braids as he once did and in a sense to represent his memory and his soul well the next day I had luck hitchhiking I reached the gates of the cemetery about an hour early and the place was quiet and Serene the large space echoed silence and only birds chirped in the large trees nature had overtaken this resting place and many of the walls were covered in Ivy I tried listening to the graves and heard no cries of pain no last words and no fear of death the dead it seemed to me had made peace with their fate they were no longer bitter at having fallen so young alone amongst the dead I stood a bit in a daydream Under the Sun but soon people began to arrive and I straightened my stance made sure my Beret was on right I was nervous at meeting the family I was assigned to who would they be how would they react back to me will they cry next to me will they ask me who I am I thought about my own mother and her reservations about my Army service soon I spotted a family of three a father mother and a son and they were heading in my general direction it was indeed my family they greeted me kindly and the father asked me who I was and where did I serve the mother who obviously had been through this before brought out some fruits and water to nourish the soldier with the red beret standing in front of her and though she looked at me I could see that her mind was far away and that I was but a painful reminder of her Longing To nourish her own child as the somber ceremony began once again I eyed my surroundings and saw families standing by Graves All Around Me interspersed among them were other red Brays representing the Fallen of the tanim at this moment more than any other tears well W up inside for I realized that this was more than a personal tragedy of one Fallen son Khan but rather the day that all of Israel remembered the men who had laid down their lives in the effort to build a home for the Jewish people a home that we had lost so long ago while the living cried the dead now rested eternally in the bosom of er Israel well my my adopted family was now in tears and the horns blared and reverberated throughout the cemetery signifying the moment of of silence and memory that had finally come in that one moment I thought of gratitude gratitude I'm so thankful to you fallen S Khan Fallen Jew Fallen brother without you my parents would have no place to run to from the Chokehold of the Soviet Union Without You Jews of the world would never have shelter and without you I would not stand here today wearing this uniform with a red Beret that did not yet belong to me suddenly it became clear to me that the dead had come back to life in the form of a new generation of young soldiers who stood on the graves on the land which God had promised them the land which they had fought and died for happened to be that Shimon Paris was speaking and he finished speaking at the ceremony and it was over the family thanked me for coming they looked down onto their son's grave and God only knows what went through their minds well they walked away slowly the mother leaning on her husband noticeably weaker than when she entered I would probably never see them again Shalom IMA Shalom ABA I said to myself 7 months after the story took place Tom Karin was one of the our company commanders and he was killed in aala Ambush also in that altercation yav beer friend of mine in platoon 2 lost an eye and a leg Tom Karine and I did not get along too well throughout most of the service however a few weeks before his death as I stood at an Overlook guard poost I saw him from a distance lead leading other soldiers while he carried a Communications radio on his back and he saw me too and from that distance he waved broadly with a big smile as if to say shalom friend there is peace between us that was the last I saw him when he was killed the Battalion Commander came to speak to us he shared our sadness but he told us not to cry at the funeral he said the enemy should not see you weeping like babies in front of the cameras we are an army and death is part of it and I knew that he was right Tom was buried in the soil of his home home kibuts ginosar that's on the shores of the Sea of Galilee the kerit and it was the most beautiful Cemetery I'd ever seen it was hard to fight back tears at the funeral as per our order especially when Tom's fiance eulogized her dead man with such warm words and tears today is the day of memory and the time for those tears there are two little boys right now there should be two and four their names are gilad and yav and they will not have a father that will be able to teach them how to ride a bike how to learn to the Torah portion for their Bar Mitzvah to send them off to the Army to bless them under the HOA of their wedding canopy but what gilad and yav Klein will have they will always know that their Abba that their father is a hero of Israel and is engraved on the hearts of every Jew in the world Ro e Klein was a highly decorated officer in the Israeli Army everyone said everyone said he was tremendously admired and he was revered and respected he was a fierce fighter but at the same time in his personality he was gentle and compassionate he was an accomplished musician and he was a tourist scholar during the second Lebanon war Riv volunteered to take his unit on a very dangerous Mission into B Lebanon they found themselves in an Alleyway in a very difficult position surrounded byah Ambush and a grenade was lobbed right among his fellow soldiers and in a split second decision of unimaginable courage Roe Klein lunged on top of that grenade and he mustered the last breath to say sh isonu Adon here o Israel the Lord Our God the Lord is one the mission and the purpose of the Jewish people he sacrificed his life not only for his soldiers around him but for all of us Ro e Klein has given a generation of people who are losing faith in our future and in our leaders he's given us hope and he's given us Something to Believe In please watch his [Music] story [Music] for I remember the things you said at the Medal of Honor ceremony when you were only [Music] for Ison eloh for [Music] spe [Music] foree [Music] [Applause] [Music] spee [Music] for [Music] [Applause] I miss you my beloved brother I got to know you again through all of the people who whose lives you've touched everyone I met was convinced that he knew the real roim you invested your all in everything you did I understand now that you're no longer just my little brother Dad Mom Noah Sarah and your kids gilad and yuav now share you with everyone suddenly many people know you who you were what happened you've become everyone's hero and I'm left only with memories pictures and [Music] pain tonight we have the honor of sharing with the world and sharing with you tonight rabbits and Ester young Rice born in Hungary she's a holocaust Survivor if there's anyone that knows the pain of the Jewish people the essence of the soul of Israel if there's someone that we need to hear on y zikaron on how to deal with that pain it's risest youngr she's been a columnist for decades the author of bestsellers like the committed life the committed marriage soul on fire her newest book life is a test has already inspired people across the globe she's the founder and director of H one of the most powerful Cur organizations in the world kiru that brings the Jewish people closer to themselves closer to each other closer to God so please everyone give us a warm welcome as we welcome riton Esther young Grace thank you so much thank you so much so rabbitson you through the days of the Holocaust through all of the wars of Israel through all of the terror attacks how are we supposed to deal with the pain what are we supposed to do as the Jewish people with all of our painful history how are we supposed to relate to all the pain that we've been through the pain of the Jewish people is different than the pain of any other [Music] Nation is the suffering of the Jewish people is like the suffering of a woman who is about to give birth anti up when we m a holy Temple we have in the kot a beautiful song that we sing El Zion and for her cities like he would weep for a woman in labor for she knows that even as she is filled with pain she knows that very soon she will see new life so we the Jewish people never forget our vision our hope to see your shine rebuil we know there is a higher plan a higher purpose we understand that we are living in equ the mashia right now in the time which is called the footsteps of Messiah we understand that this is not the end our suffering has a purpose a goal and there's a God above us who leads us and we are going to see the G very shortly and we never forget that when I was a little girl in B Bon I knew that we the Jewish people would survive how did I know that because I I was nurtured under milk of amona and the milk of faith in Egypt how did we survive Egypt when you think about it how do we survive that gal that terrible Exile how did a man and a woman have three children like Aon Mam and Moshe how did you have children like that in Egypt in one family you know how the father of these three children was amam amam an exalted Nation can you understand this in theit of Egypt to call a child exalted Nation what was the name of the mother you kabot for give go honor to God understand that in the osit of Egypt to be able to say we shall give honor to our God and that's what kept us going we never forgot from Egypt to Bam ban to aitz and today we have to deal with our own Terror with our own terrible pain today's yamon we remember our fallen soldiers but those fallen soldiers gave us AR Israel look at this pen that I'm wearing this is the pin that I always WearEver you see me you will never see me without this medall do you know how this was born my husband of blessed [Music] memory was not only the most amazing Rabbi Who Loved Amel and was still Victor andad but he was also an artist so right after I felt that we have to do something for the many w wounded and of course for the families of those who fell so I asked my husband if he would design a secar a medallion with the name of H that we could present to all our to him our wounded soldiers I came to AR Israel with these cot with these medallions and my first program was in t hasham hospital I gave out these medallions to all the soldiers who were wounded and then one of the nurses came over to me and said could I visit a solder who was burnt in a tank he was in a very poor condition he couldn't participate so of course coming to his room he was covered like a mummy and I placed this Medallion on his night table and I said to him I'm coming from the states to express honor and blessings to you in the name of all your Jewish Brethren and he said something which I didn't understand so I said to the nurse what did he say he said rabbitson you don't want to know I said but I do want to know so I asked him again tell me what did you say and he said something not complimentary and he said I should take The Medallion and take it back to the States I understood he was better he was upset I said no I'm not going to do that I'm going to leave this Medallion over here and one day you're going to fall in love and this will be my engagement gift to you and to your bride and suddenly he burst out crying and he said I'm not a soldier anymore I'm not a man anymore no girl would ever want to marry me I said you're right you're right you're not a man you're Mal hasem you're an angel of God so he started to mock he said me an angel of God I said yes you know why because it's written in the Torah that when Hashem made the promise to Our Father Abraham that this land would belong to us eternally then Abraham said B how do I know it's very difficult to understand our father's question Abraham was the Paradigm of Faith bahashem he believed in God he believed in faith he believed so how could Hashem have listened to this but how do I know God forbid Our Father Abraham never DED so if God promises isn't that sufficient how could he ask such a question but Abraham ainu so Ines that a time would come when the children his descendants would forget the T and he asked a he asked a promise from God L despite everything the AAL despite everything this land must belong to us give me a promise Hashem even if my children will forget who they are and Hashem said K not sacrifices so I said to the soldier you are correct your fair am you were speaking correctly you are not you are not a man anymore you have an angel of God through whose sacrifice this land was given to us and as with Hashem we have returned to our land after almost 2,000 years who would have believed it we have a generation that has seen the Fulfillment of Prophecy but we have so beset with problems we are in such turmoil that we do not understand we have seen so many Miracles right before our very eyes who would have believed this a nation coming home after almost 2,000 years of Holocaust programs suffering from where any new with our very eyes we have seen the Fulfillment of Prophecy Hashem the promise of God to his people lot of f we didn't quite understand the miracle because we have too many problems and there is no one to open our eyes so yes I was in Burgen band Yes I lived through that but I never forgot who I was we are an exalted Nation K hasem to give honor to God so you cannot lose your faith you cannot lose your hope and just look at us just look at us look at every battle that Israel fought Miracle after Miracle who would have believed it just consider you know we don't have time to go through all the stories but has there ever been a battle that was fought in six days in 6 days why six days his sh is there is no such a thing as a coincidence in of the Jewish people m hasem mik means it happened from God so what does that mean six days the seventh day was ready to come and what is the seventh [Music] day we didn't get the mystery the miracle Hashem was calling us and we didn't understand so in every generation we see this and Hashem is waiting for us to come home to him and consider this consider this friends here is we are in the month of and a goodish to everybody and consider [Music] that are all in the month of why why what do we learn from this what's the limit what's the message what's the message is is the initials of a of our fathers and IM of our mothers Al [Music] Abraham yob why because it is to these people that Hashem made the promise an unconditional promise that this land for will forever belong to us to menu called the rishma a voice is heard in R high above Rachel is weeping for her children and Hashem says to her se you weing wipe you your tears there is a reward for your labor the children shall come home to their borders it all happened in to remind us so I said all these things to that Soldier and I said to him I'm leaving the Sika I'm leaving this medallion with you and one day you will give it to the girl that you will choose to marry you will see I left I came back a year later and my first speech on that occasion was in a bit Hab in a recuperation Center for soldiers after my speech they wed up a soldier in a k gal galim in a wheelchair to present me with flowers and he says to me banit at lity Ritson you don't recognize me and I look at him and I said you you are very familiar to me I say that all the time when I meet people because you know it's it's impossible for me to remember everybody but I don't want to hurt people I obviously am forgive me for this you look very familiar please help me so he said at Kal please meet my bride and I look at this lovely young girl and she's wearing the Sia so that's the story of the Jewish people that's the story of our suffering it's not without purpose it's not without a gold so we can take it why can we take it because there is a reason for it there is a God above us and if anybody should know it is our generation we have witnessed the Miracles but we have forgotten who we are we are so beset with problems that we have forgotten so tonight tonight let us remember cuz that's the only way to remember yamik karon our soldiers did not sacrifice in vain we have returned to our land after almost 2,000 years our forefathers just dreamt of this it was a k it was a vision and we have been privileged to witness it every morning when we get up we should sing Hal to Hashem thank you God thank you [Music] God get up and Worship You [Music] creator so we don't have suffering we have a vision we have a purpose so with the last few moments that we have what would be your one message to all of the Jewish people around the world on yumikon my message on yumikon would be the same as on every day every morning towards the end of fot we have a special prayer I don't know if you ever paid attention to it it's at the end of a wall ofion and we say to Hashem we say to God Shalon L please God help that we shouldn't have labored for not shal we shouldn't have been born for no reason each and every person has a mission in life there is no one in this world who is exactly like you or is exactly like me Hashem created each and every one of us custom [Music] made that you gave me is pure you created you breathe it into me so you have to understand who you are you have a mission you belong to Amel you have a goal Psy yourself up to it don't allow the craziness of the world to get to you remember you have Amel we survived Hitler we shall survived am we shall survive all of them this is our history because God is leading our history and if you would know if you would understand Torah you would see that everything is written do you know that in yakimi in yakimi there is a whole passage about the time when the king of Iran the king of Paras Paras is Iran Persia is going to have a weapon that will terrify the entire world and Hashem says don't be afraid my children all this I do because this is the beginning of the days of mashiach am I telling you a story you know in your heart it's the truth otherwise you wouldn't be here otherwise we wouldn't be here I mean just look at me a child from B and bson speaking to you in Yim I mean do we understand that know some years ago if I just conclude with this story by me I was uh called by the president President Bush to represent the United States at the Y bashem dedication and uh um it was an awesome privilege we had seven people representing the president and the United States I was one of the seven we flew in a special plane uh which was presented to us by the president the government's plane on the way back to andw Air Force Base The Honorable fed Sidman who's head of the Washington Holocaust Museum came over to me and he said to me Ritson do you know where you are and I look at him and I said fed I would like to think I know where I am and he said no no I mean look at the map rabbitson charting our course now look at the map we were flying over Germany he said to me Reon think about it you a child of ban B flying over Germany in a plane that belongs to the United States government to the president of the United States and you are coming from Jerusalem [Music] I said fed I have never forgotten I think about it all the time every day the miracle of Amel and to all of you are here tonight and to all those who are listening all over the world never forget a priest the K we survived every generation every Century every Tyrant we saw Empires come and Empire is go and we are here he we are here and we shall be here and we shall welcome mashiach never be afraid we are Jews and there is a God above us who guides our history thank you so much thank you so much de friends thank you so much God bless you all thank you so much it means so much to me to be here with you KES and I thank you for your beautiful Jewish heart I thank you so much thank you thank you the Israeli leadership in the past has said we're tired of fighting we're tired of winning and we're here tonight to say that's not true we're not weak and we're not tired we are Eternal the sacrifices that our beloved Soldiers made have not gone in vain their sacrifices brought us to where we are today their Missy root neish their self sacrifice is our guide it's the source of our strength it's our inspiration their sacrifice reminds all of us that we're one people that we're one family they're sacrificing their lives reminds us why we are living Our Lives tonight our hearts go out to all of the families that have been left behind all of the families of the terror victims all of the families that lost their children in war their pain is our pain and their loss is our loss May Hashem see the unity of the Jewish people and hear our cry and redeem us now Shalom from Jerusalem [Music] [Applause] la [Music] la la [Music] la [Music] [Applause] [Music] for [Music] God [Music] [Applause] she oh ro [Music] ro la la la la la la [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] la [Applause] [Music] [Applause] ra [Music] for [Music] [Applause] she aen