FROM ELI, AN IDF SOLDIER:
I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts being called up in the emergency
call-up of last week and being part of Israel's war against terrorism. My
experience was probably typical of many but left a very deep impression on me
about life here in Israel at this time.
Friday, 29 April, the second day of Chol Hamoed, began quite normally in the
Kohn household. After shopping in our local Ramla supermarket I receive at
lunchtime a phone call. Is Kohn, Elliott at home? Knowing that I remain only
Elliott in Zahal, I know its the army! You have an emergency call up -I'm
in your neighborhood sign the paper and be in
the Ramla school in one hour with your clothes. How long will I be out? Where
will I be sent? It's a war I'm told -no one knows anything yet.
And so I make my way to join that Friday afternoon two thousand other reserve
paratroopers in our homebase in Petah Tiqva. I arrive one hour before Shabbat,
-how many fellow soldiers answered the emergency call? I speak to the officer in
charge of the call up -so far 95% of the unit have come-all within three
hours-incredible! We have a
problem, he tells me, we have whole groups of volunteers who left the unit
years ago-some in their fifties- they won't go home!! We don't have enough
room in the armed personnel carriers for them!
As Shabbat begins groups of soldiers form minyanim in the huge square which is
to be home for the next three days. Without a word being said, we gravitate to
the middle of the square -some three hundred soldiers who feel instinctively
that we need to daven (pray) together. The spirit and kavana (concentrated
intent) of that Lecha Dodi is hard
to describe-the prayers of those who are about to go to war.
As we find a place to sleep on the sand in the hanger -I start speaking to Chaim
sitting next to me. "See this" he says, this is a ticket to Italy-I
was meant to go tomorrow on a family holiday but I was called up. "Ma Lasot
(what can we do?)" he says, "we have to
defend ourselves, we cannot let them continue butchering us." Many of us
feel the same way. They sadly don't want to make peace with us-they want to make
pieces of us.
Next day Shabbat, we still don't know where we are going. We spend the day in
the shooting range, the first time in my life that I'm breaking Shabbat. A very
strange feeling but you know its Pikuach Nefesh (for the sake of saving life)
-this is a war and we have to be ready and prepared. In the afternoon, we have
an hour free.
I take out Hilchot Melachim of the Rambam to study Hilchot Milchama (Laws
pertaining to War). A few soldiers join me -a couple of non religious
soldiers too. We learn that we are about to take part in a milchemet mitzva-as
the Rambam in Hilchot Melachim Verse 5 says-saving your fellow Jew from an enemy
is in this category. Can there be a milchemet mitzva greater than this-after the
bombings in Netanya, Yerusalayim, Haifa and Tel Aviv? I think of the
Rambam who wrote this a thousand years ago, with no Jewish State and no Jewish
Army. I think of the Holocaust over fifty year ago with no Jewish State and no
Jewish Army. These halachot (laws) were meaningless then. I am privileged to be
in a Jewish State with a Jewish Army about to defend its citizens-Shecheyanu
vekeymanu lazman haze. (Thank G-d for bringing us to this time)
Shabbat is ending and we are told that are Battalion commander will speak to us
all at 11 pm. Tension in the group rises. I look at the five hundred or so
paratroopers in our hanger. Each one has families, most are married with
children between the ages of 25 and forty. All are reservists. They all know
that wherever they will be going they
will be in danger-yet they are all there, religious and non religious, ahkenazim
and sephardim -all part of Am Yisrael motivated to defend their fellow
Jews. How wrong are all those soothsayers who describe the decline of our
people-Am Yisrael Chai Vekayam-our people are kedoshim (holy)-- far greater than
those who lead them.
At 11 pm our battalion commander speaks-we are to conquer Tulkarem. The mission
-to destroy the terrorist framework that has been set up there. He is very clear
about the targets -those who have arms and who try to kill us. We must not
injure men women and children who are not involved in the terror-we must not
lose our Zelem Enosh-our respect
for innocent human life he tells us. A tear runs down my cheek, what an army,
what a wonderful people I belong too!! Imagine if the roles were reversed -would
the Arabs have such sympathy for our own civilians or would they kill them
first? I leave the question
unanswered.
On Sunday night our unit leaves for Tulkarem. As of today many of them are still
there searching from house to house to find terrorists and weapons. I, Baruch
Hashem (thank G-d) have returned home safely. As I think of the last week, the
people I met, the experiences I had, I leave with a great sense of
optimism for the future. Despite all
the tragedies we have suffered over the last months we are a strong, proud
people who will survive whatever our enemies throw at us. We pray that Hashem
will look after His Hayalim Kedoshim (Holy sodliers) and bring them back safely
home -Bekarov (soon).
Kol Tuv
Eli
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FROM HARVEY
TANNENBAUM, EFRAT:
The phone rang near my table at the Dead Sea Passover program.
Mordechai was called by his son,Yehoshua,19,an elite member of the sayeret
Matkal (special forces). Yehoshua was with us at Seder, but reported back
to his unit on Thursday night after our 1st day of Pesach had ended with Maariv
(evening prayers). Yehoshua was asked to recite the Sefirat Haomer
(Counting of the Omer) for our entire
synagogue of 1200 persons.
Yehoshua was telling his father last night that "He was at a minyan in
Kalkilya on Monday afternoon."
Mordechai began to shed tears onto his cellular phone. I went over to him
and asked if everything was OK. He answered that his son,Yehoshua,had just
explained how he organized a quick Mincha (afternoon service) in Kalkilya, near
the tanks that were lined up in downtown Kalkilya.
Yehoshua was explaining how the helicopters above were firing missiles at
buildings that were housing terrorists,and nearby,the soldiers were saying ''yaaleh
v'yavoh.'' during their recitation of the shmoneh esrah prayers. Yehoshua
hung up on his father and told him that he hoped he would organize a Maariv
(evening prayer) so as not to miss Sefirat Haomer later in the night. It
depended on the fighting and number of prisoners that his unit could kill or
capture before their next 'break' from the action.
Mordechai then asked me,as gabbai (synagogue official),here at the Dead Sea
hotel program,if he could be the cantor for Maariv. I asked if he had a ''chiyuv''
or obligation to commemorate a family member's yartzeit for this night.
Mordechai answered me that he was a 'chiyuv' for all the soldiers who were too
busy killing and arresting terrorists in Kalkilya and may or may not have a
minyan (quorum of 10 men) for Maariv.
A friend from Efrat called me and reported that there are reserve soldiers
sleeping on the basketball court of Efrat's JCC. The families of Efrat
were coming back from their vacation as a major soup Passover kitchen was being
set up inside the JCC. The soldiers were looking for matzah and some
chicken. The food was being prepared all night by the citizens of Efrat to
supplement the bare rations being given out by the IDF which was running out of
Passover food,due to the quick callup of 30,000 reserves in the past few days.
A soldier came over to my friend and asked if there was any hand matzah.
The answer was that we could only supply the machine matza.
This soldier did not look as if he was a 'religious' person. My friend
asked him why he needed hand matzah? He said that he had been eating
chametz (leaven) every year for the other days of Passover, except for Seder
night at his grandfather's house. This
year, he was scared and felt that although he never observes anything of
Judaism, he would like to eat hand matzah before he would be entering Bethlehem
last night with his tank corps.
Yes,friends,we are surrounding the compound of Rajoub with missiles and soldiers
on this erev chag, on the last day of chol hamoed. Barguti is allegedly
holed up in the compound and Rajoub, whom we trusted to 'guard' Beit Jalla and
El Khader, is hiding 400 terrorists and their belts. Rajoub who sits with
us with Zinni in tri-lateral meetings is protecting Barguti and his gangs.
We will light a candle tonight for Yizkor (memorial). We will remember our
dead relatives. We ask you to light your Yizkor candles on Wednesday
nights in Galut,along with your 2nd day yomtov candles. We will cry with
those candles and pray that Yizkor candles will not multiply G-d forbid, next
year at the conclusion of Passover for any
more Jewish funerals.
