Dear Ariel and Kfir

Ariel and Kfir, ages 4 and 9 months, our hearts are shattered. We, your people, have failed you. We swore “Never Again,” yet again, it has happened. On that horrific day, October 7, 2023, terror descended upon your beautiful family. You, along with your beloved mother, Shiri, were ripped from the arms of your brave father, Yarden, all of you dragged into the abyss of Gaza.

You were not treated as children but as animals, caged and starved, subjected to unimaginable torture before being brutally murdered by the monsters of Hamas. Their depravity didn’t end there; they further desecrated your bodies, attempting to conceal their heinous crimes. Sixteen agonizing months later, your remains were callously paraded in coffins, a grotesque spectacle orchestrated by your killers. The cruelty compounded when the box meant to contain your mother instead held a stranger’s body, a final, sickening insult to her memory and a fresh wound for your already devastated family.

From your shallow graves, your voices echo, asking how such barbarity could be inflicted upon you, upon your mother, upon the very soul of Israel. We watch in horror as Hamas parades their barely living captives on stage, forcing them to kiss foreheads in a macabre display of dominance while their supporters cheer and dance in the streets of a modern-day Sodom.

We implore the God of Israel to witness the unspeakable acts committed against your innocent lives. We are consumed by shame, by our inability to protect you. We are forced to watch masked Hamas gunmen embrace their children, children indoctrinated with hate, clutching weapons, poised to perpetuate this cycle of violence. Their children live, while too many of ours lie in the dust, our tears a constant flood. They chant “death to Israel,” digging tunnels, launching rockets, their hearts filled with malice, while we are left to pick up the pieces, our souls bleeding with every casualty, every loss.

The wounds of our people run deep, far beyond the physical. Intergenerational trauma, the legacy of persecutions, pogroms, the Holocaust, and relentless terror, tears at the fabric of our being. We pray that God looks down from heaven and sees the suffering of infants, children, men, women, and the elderly held captive in those dark tunnels, deprived of food and water, chained, caged, tormented, raped, and driven to madness and death.

We stand with the Bibas family, their cries echoing our own. A father left alone, his beloved wife and children stolen from him, stolen from the world. The answer is not simply destroyed buildings, imprisonment of the perpetrators, or even the ultimate retribution. In memory of Ariel and Kfir, the agonizing stalemate, the division of our land, must end. We beseech the Master of the Universe to bring us his Divine justice.

We mourn for you, Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir, and for all the hostages, all the holy souls of Israel martyred by these agents of evil. Oh, Lord, even as you strike down our enemies, may compassion, mercy, and peace prevail over Israel. May the souls of the murdered Bibas family ascend to Your heavenly throne, to bask in Your light, Your love, and Your everlasting holiness.

Ariel and Kfir, your loss is immeasurable, but it will not be in vain. Hamas will not escape justice. We owe you that, and so much more.