Faces

Faces of holy ones who were massacred October 7. Faces of young and energetic soldiers, full of life and warmth who died defending Israel and the Jewish people.

I’m sad when I see the faces.

How does one deal with the sadness, all those people, all those wonderful kids sacrificing their lives, dying in their prime?

The Holocaust happened before I was born. I needed to deal with it. But it was a previous generation. There was a certain distance, an emotionally safe distance, as I moved forward with life.

But these faces are not of 80 years ago. They are the faces of yesterday. How does one deal with it?

Rabbi Dr. Immanuel Schochet of blessed memory, once told the story of a fellow who was shipwrecked, hundreds of years ago. He was left on an island, and everything he had, all his possessions, all his family, were all wiped out in the shipwreck. And as he sat down on the island, he looked up to G-d and he said, “G-d, You took everything from me. You took my family. You took my possessions. You took everything. And now You want to take away my belief in You. ‘Oif lihachis’ — in spite of You — I won’t let You take that away.”

I remember he was crying when he told the story. And he said that this Jew on the island wanted so much to keep his faith in G-d, and this was the only way that he could do it. “In spite of You, I won’t let You take away my belief in You.”

Sweet faces. Sad. And we go on with life, knowing, believing and trusting that the light will come, that happiness will come, that those who perished will become alive again, that after two thousand years of exile, we will very soon welcome our Redemption with Moshiach. A time when the whole world will be at peace, and “our mouths will be filled with laughter.” (Psalm 126) A time of happiness and joy.

May it happen very soon.