Have Faith! Because… “God Said So”

I slept on the plane pretty well on the way home. That was a first! Part of me wanted to replay every moment and every site and every person that we met throughout the journey, but I thought it would be best to sleep on it and to wake up with fresh eyes and a fresh mind, I couldn’t wait to start processing where I had just been. To the Land of Israel.

From the North in the Carmel to the Southern most tip of Kibbutz Nachal Oz on the border with Gaza. Every step I took, and every breath I took, I held longer than usual. It was as if I wanted to release the pain and sadness of where I walked, and what I witnessed and only to breathe in a newness filled with the hope and faith that everyone around me seemed to possess. Our good friends had finally returned to their home on the kibbutz and it was time to grill and laugh and smile with one another. It was time to create new memories of joy, safety and love.

It wasn’t that I was trying to remember all of the places I had walked, it was the people and their faces that will be with me, forever, their smiles, the hope in their eyes and the joy on their lips of knowing tomorrow is going to be a better day, a stronger day, a more miraculous day than the one before.

Where do they get this Faith? Where do they get this Courage? Where do they get this unwavering Resilience?

Simply put… because “God Said So!”

We heard from several survivors of October 7, at Nova, and what does that mean? To survive Nova. Did it mean running through avocado fields, hiding under trees, ignoring the pain when their bodies were giving out and when dehydration set in?

When they didn’t know where they were running but they just kept going? When groups of 30 turned into groups of 10 and then turned into an individual alone in the dark? We listened quietly, breathlessly, achingly; we wanted to take in every word. It was as if we wanted to take it all from them and to take their pain in order to alleviate some of their most unforgiving memories.

On a Tuesday, we traveled to Shuva Junction and met Dror. Trust me, you will meet Dror and you will remember him always with a smile and strength and purpose in his every move. He and his brothers and members of his Moshav not only provided the wounded soldiers with bandages on the first day of the war, As it was the first crossroads where some type of medical care could be established on the ground. And months later and now two years later, Dror and his brothers and friends are now supplying hot food, music, and have a supply room filled with anything the soldiers could possibly need for every season of war.

On Wednesday, We heard from the most beautiful women speak about their losses, Some lost their sons, some their spouses, and of course everyone lost a neighbor and a friend.

Their resilience is something one must witness and once you do, you’ll never be the same. The courage, the faith, the beauty in their eyes stayed with me for days and I hope will become a part of me forever.

One day, We sat in the most magnificent living room in Cessaria and attentively listened to the courage and strength and joy of Hadas Lowenstern. She had lost her husband, one of the first to fall in this terrible war. She shared her absolute faith in HaShem. That’s right, she shared about her unwavering faith and love of HaShem and that she sees him in every moment of her day and that she wants more days and that she wants to live. She wants to choose life. She wants to choose love. She wants to choose Joy and she wants to choose gratitude. Hadas shared about her life, now, she is remarried only a couple of months and bringing all that she loved about Elisha zl” with her into this next chapter, into this next precious time that she is grateful to have.

In the afternoon we settled into Settler’s Celler as we headed deep into Judea Samaria and met with a young man who served us Wine and Pizza in the middle of a rocky green field that he settled on with his family so that he could welcome guests like our forefathers, Abraham and Sarah.

We drank wine, we laughed, we sang and we understood that this Land, this richly traveled, explored and cultivated Land of Israel is going nowhere and that it means everything to the Jewish people.

As always, the Journey wouldn’t have been the same without wandering through the Shuk in Jerusalem and the Old City with its many personalities, stones and stories vibrating from within the walls and that remind us that we are each a part of something far greater than ourselves and immensely greater than this time in our lives. We danced and sang with tamborines on a rooftop overlooking the Kotel with female IDF soldiers, their braces- filled smiles made me laugh at first and then I cried with them, prideful tears of joy like a mother shares with her daughter.

I was so taken by the Land this time. Each rock and field and landscape more powerful than the one before. I was captivated by my brothers and sisters who keep standing strong upon it. Whether in caravans, or in fields that
are filled with cattle and grain, perhaps vineyards and orchards and of course, the ever growing beautiful communities of families making sure we have Our Land, for our children and our children’s children.

What I experienced this time was the hope and faith of our people through their tears and struggles and fears. And that we are united by it all.

We are not a people because we agree or disagree. We are not a people because we have shared experiences and understand one another’s language and dress and culture. We are not a people because we even believe in the same things. We are a people because we have a shared Truth. That this is our piece of Land and that it was blessed and given to us by HaShem, purchased by our forefathers, cultivated by our foremothers and it is simply put… because, “God said so!”

So I am well-rested now and have somewhat reflected. As we enter Chanukah, and we share stories of miracles from the greatest moments of lives being saved and spared. Miracles of renewed faith in the tunnels and the never wavering strength of our soldiers, the miracles of our hostages being returned home to their families to light another Chanukiah! These are our shared Miracles!

Let us mark these extraordinary miracles of survival, of faith and of the resilience of our people like Hadas, like our survivors and our soldiers continue to teach us.

Simply put… because “God said so!”