One slip read, “Gilad, I love you. Be strong! May we celebrate the holidays together at home!”
Recently, the media here in Israel publicized a letter Gilad had written to his parents, the first sign of life from any of the soldiers captured this summer. Gilad wrote, “I feel OK, and they are treating me OK. I miss you and I think about you a lot. I really hope that I will be able to celebrate my next birthday with you at home.”
His next birthday is a year away. Gilad is clearly not as optimistic as the person who sent the balloon into the sky over Egypt.
The quintessential good kid, Gilad was known in high school as a student who excelled in math and physics, always the first to volunteer when help was needed, with an encyclopedic memory for sports statistics. He spends his summers and his short breaks from the army lending a helping hand to his parents who, in addition to their regular jobs as a manager and an administrator, run a bed and breakfast in the North of Israel.
Because of a low medical profile, Gilad could have been exempted from serving in a combat unit when he was drafted a year ago. But he was highly motivated to serve his country, and despite the risks involved he applied and was accepted as a combat soldier.
Eldad Regev
Friends and neighbors describe 26-year-old Eldad Regev as an “amazing kid whom everyone loves” with sparkling blue eyes and a heart of gold.
In his senior year of yeshiva high school, his mother, Tova, tragically died of cancer. Despite his mother’s untimely death, the very next year Eldad volunteered to serve his country in an elite infantry brigade.
Three days before his capture, Eldad joined his father and three brothers at his mother’s eighth memorial service. On the day he was supposed to return home after three weeks of reserve duty, he was captured along with Ehud Goldwasser by Hizbullah guerillas.
Last month, Eldad’s longstanding dream of gaining acceptance into the law school of Bar Ilan University was fulfilled. Sad that he doesn’t even know.
Eldad lived with his brothers, all three of whom, alongside their father, have fought constantly for his release.
This past August more than 100,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv to rally for the release of the captured soldiers. At the rally, former justice minister Professor Yaakov Neeman declared, “The strength of the will of the Jewish people, and our faith in God, are what will return our sons home.”
Psychologists who have worked with Israeli soldiers released from captivity point out that during their ordeal they tend to discover reserves of strength and faith they never knew they had. What breaks them, the psychologists explain, is the image of their mothers and fathers and wives worrying about them at home.
This Yom Kippur, as we pray with all our hearts for the speedy release of Gilad, the son of Aviva; Ehud, the son of Malka; and Eldad, the son of Tova, let us remember that we are not just praying for our captured soldiers.
We are praying for Gilad, the beloved son of Aviva and Noam; Ehud, the dear son of Malka and Shlomo and cherished husband of Karnit, and Eldad, the treasured son of Tova of blessed memory (who pleads and lobbies in the World Above for her son’s release) and Zvi.
The Regev family has a big, hand-painted sign on their front door that reads, “Eldad, we are waiting for you at home!”
Udi, Gilad, and Eldad, we too are waiting for you at home. We will keep you in our prayers and in our hearts until we have you home for the holidays.