Life Of Denial By Rabbi Ari Neuwirth

Listen to this story. She lived on a kibbutz called Rain Kibbutz Rain located on the Gaza border. She was the cultural director of this kibbutz and she was also the organizer of the Nova festival. On October 7th, Simra when the terrorists infiltrated the border, they came into kibbutim and they murdered Daphna's two children and her mother. until this simra until this massacre Daphna fought off religion, fought off Tyra, fought off mitzvah and she herself was taken into captivity. She was a hostage and then finally released after her release. She gave an interview and she gave a tour of the kibbutenim that were destroyed and massacred and the one who was writing this off his name was Danny Wise. They tooured the kibbutz and they saw the chart houses, heaps of metal, shattered glass. And she turns to Danny Wiser and she says, "This is our show." And Danny Wise says, "Yeah, this reminds me of Crystal, the burnt shoes, the shattered glass." And then he turns to her and she says, "Dafna, where's your shoe? Where's your burnt shoe? Where are your cphite tyra? Did the terrorist not touch the shoes on the cifyra?" She laughed ironically and she says there was no sh there was no s Tyra for them to touch or to burn or to massacre. There are 21 kibbutsum here and not one shoe. But she says this time it's going to be different. We're going to be rebuilding these kibbutsum. And you know what's the first thing we're going to rebuild? You know what the first structure is? Ashul ashul. Danny Wise looks at her and says, "How could that be? You fought Yiddish for your whole life? You're nonobservant and now you're going to build a shield." She says, "Let me tell you my story. I was brought to Gaza into a tunnel and I was tortured and beaten. And the guard who was beating me, the terrorist, I turned to him and I said, "What are you doing? Why are you beating me? My whole life I wanted to make peace with you. My whole life I made programs, us and the Arabs, and now you're doing this." She says, "We're cousins." No, you're not even a child of Iraim. You're not even a Jew. And he spits at her. She's shocked. I'm not a Jew. I'm not a Jew. She says, "No, you're a European colonialist. You came from Europe to Palestine to steal our land." At that moment, she realized she has been living a life of denial and delusion. She says, "You know, I used to travel. When I travel, people would ask me, "You Jewish?" You know what I respond? "No, I'm Israeli. I never identify myself as a Jew. I identify myself as an Israeli. And now I could understand this terrorist didn't see me as a Jew. You know why? Because I don't see myself as a Jew. At that moment she screamed in Arabic. She says they wanted to shut her up. They taped her mouth closed and she realized at that moment she has a Jewish nama. I have a Jewish soul says it means Hashem I'll get out of here and the first thing I'm going to do is go back to the kibbuts and rebuild but the first thing I'm going to build is a she didn't give up in that tunnel she was reinvigorated she realized that she has a true mission we could learn from all of these people that sometimes we face difficult situations it should never be a situation where our world is turning dark or upside down. But it could be a hard time with shid for a child, health, parasa, and sometimes you want to give up. Don't give up. Hashem, hope to Hashem and Hashem will take care. [Music]