Our hearts are aching and our spirits are broken.
As I stared at my laptop screen Thursday this morning with a burning desire to write my weekly blog, I was frozen in time as I closed my eyes and saw the images of two beautiful angelic Bibas babies being held and protected by their mother Shiri, as they were being brutally kidnapped from their homes on that dark morning of October 7th.
Having just heard the official horrifying news that the Ariel, Kfir are no longer, my mind began to race with an explosion of mental images and unanswered questions.
As if this news was not stressful, horrifying and traumatic enough, we heard just hours later from Israeli news media that in their evil and maniacal fashion, Israeli forensics reported that the body of Shiri Bibas which they presumably returned to Israel with the bodies of her boys Kfir and Ariel was in fact not her body. Therefore we still cannot confirm Shiri’s status.
This tragedy upon tragedy is beyond comprehension. The pain and anguish continues to grow by the hour, and by the day.
I ask myself, as most of us have – could we have done more to rescue or save Shiri, Kfir and Ariel from the evil brutality of Hamas hell?
The day of reconning for this vicious crime will happen and its in Hashem’s hands.
We all hope and pray that Shiri Bibas will be released and returned home immediately, together with all the other hostages.
Kfir and Ariel were two absolutely beautiful children, with their playful smiles and shiny bright orange hair. Their tragic loss breaks our hearts and their images are so deeply lodged in our minds and memories forever.
I will never ever forget the shocking video of Shiri and her boys during their vicious kidnapping by Hamas. Shiri’s terrified expression of fear, confusion and worry while holding her baby boys tightly against her chest and protecting them with a blanket over their heads is an image that was beyond shocking and palpable.
The imagery of that moment suggested to me that Shiri was not only physically protecting her two beautiful innocent little boys but in a surrealist symbolic sense, she was protecting acheinu bnai yisrael from what we were going to experience resulting from this profoundly horrifying and disgusting morning of October 7th.
Since that infamous day, when Shiri and her boys were brutally kidnapped, Jews throughout the world were mitpallel day and night with tefillot and tehillim that they and the other hostages would be released alive in a hostage exchange deal or rescued by IDF special ops. As we know, neither sadly happened.
We sit today as a nation and as a people in deep mourning over the loss of two beautiful children who symbolize everything beautiful, everything pure and everything angelic and precious.
Over the past almost 500 days, the Bibas family were emblematic and symbolic as they represented a bright ray of promise and a slight glimmer of hope. But to no avail.
We all prayed, we cried, we protested in the streets in Israel and experienced countless days and nights of sleeplessness…only to find out that our worst fears were realized and our hopes shattered into pieces. The non return of Shiri to her homeland, haunts us and chills us to our core.
This daunting reality, and other significant tragedies that have befallen B’nai Yisrael, is an inflection point of harsh reality – one which many compare to the images of Nazi extermination camps and the many persecutions, pogroms and murder of our people. It also represents the many tragedies we have experienced throughout our history as a people as a nation, as a family and as a mamlechet kohanim.
One of the most difficult and perplexing questions we may ask ourselves at this moment of sadness and mourning is where do we go from here?
This is not a political, strategic or metaphorical question but rather one which strikes at the very heart and soul of who we are as an Am Kadosh.
As we know, Judaism teaches us that we must never ever give up hope and that we should always try to be positive, hopeful and optimistic even in the face of danger, adversity and hopelessness.
Our history has demonstrated that the dark clouds of destiny have always been and continue to be conquered, challenged and eradicated by emunah, bitachon and our deep faith in Hashem. Our existence today against all odds, is a testimony to this reality of our Jewish people, their destiny and our survival.
The Torah encourages us to never ever give up hope and to anchor our thoughts, hearts and emotions in bitachon and emunah in Hashem; as well as through hishtadlut (perseverance).
One has only to look at the manner in which Yehoshua was able to lead, confront, battle and defeat our enemies near the battlefields of Yericho; the resilience of the bnai yisrael as they sojourned through the midbar in order to reach eretz yisrael, the victory of the Maccabees against the Greek army, the resilience and fortitude of holocaust survivors who were driven to rebuild their shattered lives in Israel and around the world, Joseph who overcame insurmountable danger and existential challenges and his role in becoming a most powerful figure in our history; the countless wars fought by Israel against its enemies which resulted in victory; the countless number of Jews who survived pogroms and persecution; and the numerous events in our history where our people and nation were able to successfully overcome fear, danger and extinction through their hope, emunah, bitachon, passion and a burning desire and ability to believe that HaShem has and always will lead us to a more secure, safer and resilient state of being.
Although it is a challenge of monumental enormity, we continue to remain positive and optimistic. To paraphrase the great Lubavitcher Rebbe, “if you think positive, it will be positive.”
Is it an easy concept to accept? Not at all. But, it does help all of us navigate, circumvent and cope with the difficult and challenging events in our lives and the lives of our people.
May Hashem oversee the release Shiri Bibas together the all of the remaining hostages; and may HaShem bless all of acheinu bnai yisrael with hope, promise and a brighter tomorrow.
Am Yisrael Chai
