Friends:
The Sabbath is about to descend upon us. The Jewish Sabbath begins Friday at sundown and ends Saturday at sundown. Almost a 25-hour break from the insanity of the world. Senator Joe Lieberman wrote a book years ago called the Gift of Rest which explains it well. Everything comes to a halt. Everything……work, television, radio, transportation, entertainment and more. The Sabbath (or Shabbos as we call it) is about G-d, friendship, singing, good friends and time with the family. Oh yes….and always a good bottle of wine on the table – at least at my home. Two weeks ago that was shattered by the vicious attack from Hamas. This week we are ready to collapse, and we are praying for quiet, for camaraderie and for mercy.
I have just returned from Sderot and the south where my new friend Stanley (a 78 year old retired gentleman from Philadelphia) and I carried out the business of People for Israel – www.peopleforisrael.com – our new organization. Stanley is one of these incredible people. He can’t do enough to help others, and his heart is always in the right place. The fact that he also likes a good bottle of wine doesn’t hurt, but we haven’t had time to drink any. Sderot is a working-class town of about 30,000 people that sits on the Gaza border. My son lived there for a while. On the way down, we drove the son of a friend. His name is Baruch. He is twenty years old and is going down to volunteer for Magen David Adom – https://www.mdais.org/en – a national organization providing blood supply and pre-hospital services. The people that work there are some of the most selfless I have ever met. Baruch means “blessed,” and he has been volunteering MDA for five years, since the time he was fifteen. It’s difficult to enter Sderot emotionally or physically. Most of the city has been evacuated and driving on the streets is like driving through a ghost town. Missiles are still launched towards the city despite Israel’s efforts to shut down Hamas, and it is where the entire police station as taken over by hostages. Since the war began the police check every car coming into the city, and if you don’t have a reason to be there – you cannot enter. It’s not like I remember it when I used to go see my son. No cars, no people, the playgrounds are empty, and few stores – if any – remain open. Sderot is the city in Israel with the highest level of PTSD. If you spent 18 years living under missiles fired from the Gaza Strip, you’d know what I mean. Thanks to Hamas, we have an entire city and an entire generation not just in therapy but scarred, physically and emotionally. Israel has interesting ways of dealing with it. They paint the bomb shelters to look “pretty” or “fun” so as to not scare little children. I understand and even admire the intent, but they are anything but fun.
As we drive past the Rami Levy (Israel’s version of Wegmann’s), you can see bullet holes in the building and craters in the street where grenades or rockets have fallen. Baruch explains to us that it was here, in front of the food store, that a minibus with twenty passengers (mostly tourists) was gunned down by members of Hamas waiting for the next car to turn the corner. All were killed, and he tells us some of his friends at MDA had to identify and cover the bodies. Not one survivor. I pull the car over and stand there for a minute thinking about what it must have been like to be on this very corner 13 days ago. I cannot. It is too painful.
Stanley and I continue our journey delivering medicine, challahs (bread for the Sabbath), sandwiches, underwear, socks and a variety of supplies to those in need. We talk, share a laugh once in a while and are fairly introspective as the miles roll by. Stanley tells me about a drug called Captagon. It is a synthetic amphetamine-type stimulant that allowed the terrorists to commit heinous acts with a sense of calmness and indifference. It also kept them alert for extended amounts of time and suppressed their appetite. Nope. It was not enough that Hamas butchered Israel’s children, raped the women and took so many hostages. They decided to do it with the utmost calm with a level of cruelty unseen in my lifetime. It was originally developed to counter ADD, but like so many things – mankind has utilized it for a distorted purpose.
Despite the fact that the government of Israel is still finding dead bodies of individuals slaughtered by Hamas, we continue our efforts. I cannot slow down. If I do, I will have a breakdown. So much pain around me, so many broken families……how could I not? We have washing machines to deliver, flashlights to disburse, baby clothing to share and bikes to purchase. Why bikes? More than twenty communities down south have been destroyed, and we need to put some smiles on young faces. Dogs need to be reunited with families that cannot find them and our neighbor on the next hill has taken in more than twenty of them until their owners can be found…..if their owners are still alive.
Miri and her children have left. You may remember her. She was the woman that moved in with us from Sderot when her home was bombed. She went to stay with her mother, but she was too scared to stay in our rural village. Now we have a family that moved in with us, originally from Minsk. They settled in Israel many years ago. He is Christian. She is Jewish, and they have four children. Their youngest child, May is one of the most adorable children I have seen. It’s hard not to fall in love with her smile. I can’t help but stare at her. They were evacuated from their home in Ashkelon, a beautiful city on the Mediterranean sea. Hamas was there too. Missiles are landing there too. It is another city that has been left behind until calm replaces the chaos. We purchased about $300 worth of clothing, diapers and formula for May. It’s all she has right now, and this is where People for Israel comes in.
Leviticus 19:16 tells us: “Do not stand by the blood of your neighbor.” Looking at May, I know we will not. We do not know where our strength will come from, the money to help, the fortitude to keep going. Everyone asks me, “Is it safe to drive down south (near Hamas) and up north (near Hezbollah)?” No, it is not. Air raid sirens go off, and there is nowhere to hide. I don’t have time to think about it, not while my neighbor needs help. Please know I am not alone. Every one of my neighbors is doing the same thing. The shared thought process is this: If you are safe, help those that are not. If you have food, share with those that do not. If you have a smile, share it with those that cannot. We will do it for our friends. We will do it for strangers. We will do it for May.
David at People for Israel
USA: +1.201.801.6440
Israel: +972.52.705.6300
www.peopleforisrael.com
