There are no words. “Mah nomar. Mah nedaber.”
I would never have believed that the stories I grew up with would come alive in my time. Beautiful babies snatched from their mother’s arms and brutally taken away, parents and children hiding in attics then shot and burned. Young and old, slaughtered, mutilated, and violated. And all the while the world condemns us, the terrorized, while the terrorists are idealized, glorified, and celebrated.
Hashem calls out to the nations of the world as He did to Kayin. “What have you done? Do you hear the voices? These are the drops of your brother’s spilled blood! They cry out to Me from the ground.”
For years my mother would exclaim “The world is on fire and we are sleeping!” She would say to me, “Sheyfelah, I know what I am seeing. This is pre-Holocaust Europe. It’s happening all over again.”
No one understood.
Today we understand.
As the world marches en masse against us and college campuses are overrun with the sludge of antisemitism we wonder ‘where did this come from? How did this happen so quickly?’
How do they remain silent to the barbarism, the evil, the cruelty? How do they stand in solidarity with kidnappers, murderers, killers, and those who torture and maim? Has our world lost its soul and gone mad?
This war is not about territory. It is not about land. It is about our future and the future of our children. The very breath of every Jew who walks this planet. Shouts of “From the river to sea…” and “By any means” are calls for genocide against our entire nation.
Eretz Yisrael has been given to us as our eternal inheritance from the Creator of this universe. We must never doubt it. We must always remember who we are, our roots, our identity, and our land. Our avos and emahos walked the very earth we step on so that we know forever that they created footsteps for us to follow in and hold onto.
The world denies our existence, our history and our people. They do not even allow those who sacrificed their lives al Kiddush Hashem a memory. They say the Holocaust never happened. The October 7th massacre was either made up or coming to us. They dare believe that they can erase us from the face of this earth.
I was born upon the ashes of the Holocaust. I proclaim to all our haters that I proudly carry the name of my Bubby who walked into the flames of the gas chambers. I live for her. I carry on for her. You, haters, disappear with time but our nation survives and yes, we thrive, with the blessing of Hashem.
All that we have studied, every holiday we have celebrated are not just lessons in history or an opportunity to eat delicious foods and get away.
Know where we have come from. Contemplate our story. This is Chanukah, Purim and Pesach all wrapped into one. This is the fight of our lives.
When Haman threatened to annihilate our people, Mordechai gathered the nation.
“We are like a ship without a captain, sheep without a shepherd. We have no prophets, no kings, to tell us what to do. The only thing we have is the power of our mouths. Let us gather together and pray. Especially the children. They have the most innocent of souls.”
We, too, must use the power of our mouths. We cannot grow tired. We cannot lose our passion. We must each take a name of a chayal and do mitzvos for his protection. As we utter the words ‘matir assurim’ each day, we must daven for those who have been taken. Every free moment you have – whether in a car or waiting in a doctor’s office, use your time to empower Am Yisrael. Take out your Tehillim. Do not grow tired. Call someone that you have grown distant with and make peace. Reach out to your brothers and sisters who have not celebrated Shabbos and invite them to experience the light of Shabbos with you. Be a force of unity.
This is not a time to remain silent. Silence is indifference.
There will come a day that the next generation will ask you – ‘What did you do in that difficult time? Did you stand up for your nation? Did you speak up for your land? Did you shake the heavens above with your prayers? What did you do?’
This is your moment. This is our moment.
The fight for the existence of Eretz Yisrael, Am Yisrael, our sons and daughters and generations to come.
The more they hate us the more we will love one another.
The greater their darkness the greater our light.
Hashem li lo era.
