A day in Jerusalem...
My phone rings at 6 AM it’s Tzivia. She thinks she’s in labor. What to do?
“Keep moving!” I tell her. “Let me pray and get the kids off to school and we will speak soon…”
I pray for Tzivia. I pray for Israel, the soldiers, the welfare of us all. I pray for myself, to have courage and faith and strength
.
The children off to school. “I love you,” I tell them.
Again on the phone with Tzivia.
She’s doing good. First birth, it could take some time. I ask her if she wants to make challot for the soldiers? We are organizing care packages for them and baskets for Shabbes. What better way to labor then by making challot? She tells me she’ll get started right away.
I start working in my clinic my phone close by me waiting for Tzivia to call again. In between breaks I check the news. It’s an obsession now, to check the news. Almost out of principle I never watched or listened to the news before, but now, during this war I have to check. What is going on? What are they saying? What are they doing? Rockets and missiles. I pray for our soldiers, for the people now living in bomb shelters.
A day in Jerusalem…
I receive an email from a soldier:
Today our hearts are pounding in fear. Who of us will die? And who will return safely?
We are your messengers in fighting . We are fighting so you can live peacefully with your children. So you can stay alive. We are your protection. Will you be ours? We are going to this dangerous mission knowing some of us will not come back, but will rise to their next position in a storm to heaven, as Eliyahu the Navi did.
We are going with devotion and dedication.
We are asking you to be our protection with your prayers. Protect us by going above and beyond yourselves through Ruchniyus and good deeds.
Pray for us. Daven that you won't see another mother burying her son. Pray that you won't see our wives as widows raise our children in tears. Daven that our children will grow up knowing who their fathers are. Pray that we will eliminate the terrorists who aim to destroy us, and that we will not injure innocent women and children.
Please, we are begging you, as you are reading this, don't just go on to the next thing you are doing. Say a chapter of Tehillim. Wake up David HaMelech to ask Hashem for full Geulah and peace for the all world. Take upon yourselves another good deed. And please share this with your friends and family. I'm certain that your tefilos will make a difference.
Remember, we are in it together. We are on the front lines carrying the weapons and you are fighting along with us in your tefilos. Each word of your tefilah gives us strength, protection and success!!!!!!
A day in Jerusalem…
Such a responsibility we have, such a weight on our soldiers. You mean to tell me that my actions are just as important as their guns? That my prayers work like the Iron Dome shooting down and collapsing their rockets?
The phone rings, Tzivia needs me to come. I am on my way.
I step onto the light rail. It’s full of soldiers. Where are they going? To pay their last respects to a fellow soldier slain in battle against terrorists and terrorism, against, Hamas.
I get out two stops before the cemetery on Mount Herzl. They ride on.
A day in Jerusalem…
Tzivia’s table is piled high with challot. I place them into my bag so that I won’t forget them.
My dear Tzivia is laboring. What a special moment this is. We waited so long for this day. She and her husband have been married for ten years and about two years ago they were told by doctors that they couldn’t have a child. They were wrong...
We leave for the hospital. It’s time.
A few hours more pass we are all crying and praying. As Tzivia pushes her baby out the midwife asks her to pray for her son, a soldier on the front in Gaza. She hasn’t heard from him in a week... Tzivia prays we pray, she cries we sob. A baby girl is born.
I return home to my family to my own challah making. My children write notes of encouragement to the soldiers.
I collapse into bed thinking about Tzivia, her baby, the midwife, her son.
A day in Jerusalem is over and tomorrow will be a new one...
My phone rings at 6 AM it’s Tzivia. She thinks she’s in labor. What to do?
“Keep moving!” I tell her. “Let me pray and get the kids off to school and we will speak soon…”
I pray for Tzivia. I pray for Israel, the soldiers, the welfare of us all. I pray for myself, to have courage and faith and strength
.
The children off to school. “I love you,” I tell them.
Again on the phone with Tzivia.
She’s doing good. First birth, it could take some time. I ask her if she wants to make challot for the soldiers? We are organizing care packages for them and baskets for Shabbes. What better way to labor then by making challot? She tells me she’ll get started right away.
I start working in my clinic my phone close by me waiting for Tzivia to call again. In between breaks I check the news. It’s an obsession now, to check the news. Almost out of principle I never watched or listened to the news before, but now, during this war I have to check. What is going on? What are they saying? What are they doing? Rockets and missiles. I pray for our soldiers, for the people now living in bomb shelters.
A day in Jerusalem…
I receive an email from a soldier:
Today our hearts are pounding in fear. Who of us will die? And who will return safely?
We are your messengers in fighting . We are fighting so you can live peacefully with your children. So you can stay alive. We are your protection. Will you be ours? We are going to this dangerous mission knowing some of us will not come back, but will rise to their next position in a storm to heaven, as Eliyahu the Navi did.
We are going with devotion and dedication.
We are asking you to be our protection with your prayers. Protect us by going above and beyond yourselves through Ruchniyus and good deeds.
Pray for us. Daven that you won't see another mother burying her son. Pray that you won't see our wives as widows raise our children in tears. Daven that our children will grow up knowing who their fathers are. Pray that we will eliminate the terrorists who aim to destroy us, and that we will not injure innocent women and children.
Please, we are begging you, as you are reading this, don't just go on to the next thing you are doing. Say a chapter of Tehillim. Wake up David HaMelech to ask Hashem for full Geulah and peace for the all world. Take upon yourselves another good deed. And please share this with your friends and family. I'm certain that your tefilos will make a difference.
Remember, we are in it together. We are on the front lines carrying the weapons and you are fighting along with us in your tefilos. Each word of your tefilah gives us strength, protection and success!!!!!!
A day in Jerusalem…
Such a responsibility we have, such a weight on our soldiers. You mean to tell me that my actions are just as important as their guns? That my prayers work like the Iron Dome shooting down and collapsing their rockets?
The phone rings, Tzivia needs me to come. I am on my way.
I step onto the light rail. It’s full of soldiers. Where are they going? To pay their last respects to a fellow soldier slain in battle against terrorists and terrorism, against, Hamas.
I get out two stops before the cemetery on Mount Herzl. They ride on.
A day in Jerusalem…
Tzivia’s table is piled high with challot. I place them into my bag so that I won’t forget them.
My dear Tzivia is laboring. What a special moment this is. We waited so long for this day. She and her husband have been married for ten years and about two years ago they were told by doctors that they couldn’t have a child. They were wrong...
We leave for the hospital. It’s time.
A few hours more pass we are all crying and praying. As Tzivia pushes her baby out the midwife asks her to pray for her son, a soldier on the front in Gaza. She hasn’t heard from him in a week... Tzivia prays we pray, she cries we sob. A baby girl is born.
I return home to my family to my own challah making. My children write notes of encouragement to the soldiers.
I collapse into bed thinking about Tzivia, her baby, the midwife, her son.
A day in Jerusalem is over and tomorrow will be a new one...