Today we remember with a heavy heart the 23,544 fallen soldiers who have given their lives to protect the State of Israel and the 4,128 innocent men,women and children who have been killed in terrorist acts. It is a very sad day in which the whole country stops for a minute, when the siren blasts everywhere,no matter what they are doing or where they are everyone stops and cries.
When my daughter lived in Israel for a year the 2008-2009 Gaza war broke. I called her one day and she said she couldn’t talk. She said she was going to the funeral of one of the first fallen soldiers. I asked:”why? Do you know him?” She said: “no, but everyone is going.” Later she told me that there where thousands of people in the funeral, everyone was crying, most of the people didn’t know him but it felt as if he was everyone’s son, brother, or friend.
Today we count the the 20th day of the Omer with “Yesod She Be Tiferet” (Unity in Compassion). Today we feel this combination more than ever. The Jewish people are one heart we are all together. Sadly sometimes it takes tragedies to make us feel it more, when we stick together it arouses H”S mercy towards us. It is this unity that has helped us survive everything through the ages. Unity should also come when things are good for us. We should learn to put our differences apart and see that it’s much more that unites us than what separates us.
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