Magen Avraham
Iran war
First week notes

The first night:
Israel has attacked Iran’s nuclear bomb project last Friday early morning . At 03:00 a siren woke all of us up, with an announcement of the beginning of a new type of war.
On that night we hosted 45 Noam (Israel’s USY) Teens and their small staff, that came for a Seminar in Ma, that included food and sleepover. The next morning about 40 of our Bar/t Mitzva were scheduled to go to Jerusalem for the Traditional Kotel trip with Rabbi Yos and our intern Anna. On Shabbat evening and morning, we were to celebrate Shira’s Bat mitzva. Shira is Naomi Graetz’s granddaughter, and a nephew to Rabbis Ariela and Tzvika Graetz, serving respectively as a Reform rabbi in Haifa and a Conservative rabbi in LA. Shira is the daughter of Avigail (An eastern spiritual arts expert) and Eitan (A film creator and director) who currently live in India.
At 04:00 I left my wife and toddler at home, and headed to shul to talk to the kids. I had a talk with them at 22:00 Friday, so they knew me as the community Rabbi. I didn’t put on my rabbi uniform – just shorts, a t-shirt, flip flops and my pistol. Some of them came to shake my hand. Being an informal figure, I felt they needed a hug and a smile. We’ve put them all in our large safe rooms, and contacted their parents to come and pick them up. Since they live all over the country, about 9 cars came from Jerusalem, Rehovot, Raanana and other places to pick the kids up. Many reservists were immediately drafted during these hours, including the guy in charge of this 2 day seminar. I replaced him, and talked to the four Shinshin (gap year) students that knew the kids. I’ve set a clear hierarchy with one of them being in charge, because we didn’t know when missiles might start to fall. It takes about 8-10 minutes for a missile to arrive from Iran. I know that from the previous attack that occurred before Rosh Hashanah. So, 10 minutes is a lot of time to prepare, but you need to have control and hierarchy to make sure we get all the kids into safety. I asked them to make a list, and write down all the kids that are taken by the parents.
By 06:45 all the kids were on their way home. I even remembered to offer coffee to all the parents’ drivers and supply each car with a cold bottle of water for the trip. They came from a long, tense drive and had a long way back home. Finally, I could go back home to my wife and kid that were sleeping deeply in the safe room.

 

The First Weekend:
On Friday we had no Kabbalat Shabbat, due to home front command orders. Friday night was terrible bombing wise. In northern and southern Israel they have 3 sirens and attacks per night, and here we have 1-2. Omer and Beersheva are surrounded by IAF bases, so we hear the jets and some missiles try to target these bases, putting us under threat. On Saturday morning the Bat Mitzvah happened quietly in a very small circle of friends and family.
On Monday we  asked our younger community families to knock on the doors of the elders. That’s a list of “buddies” our chair Zohar and I prepared about a year ago, but this is the first time we’ve asked people to do those house calls.
On Tuesday, I held a funeral with 20 people present, due to Homefront orders.  There’s no safe space in our graveyard. And the deceased had hundreds of friends and colleagues, who couldn’t come to the funeral nor the Shiva. The risk would be too much.
Our co-chair Zohar’s kids were immediately drafted. Our co-chair Lieutenant Colonel Inbal Is drafted for very long months. My brother is in the army. Most of our congregants have a kid or grandkid in the army now. Most are in their 20’s or 30’s. To make it short - we worry a lot.

 

How our lives look like right now:
The trip to Jerusalem was cancelled. That Shvilistim path of Israel meeting [to prepare Omer  teens to participate in a national walk] was cancelled. All educational activities are cancelled. Most workplaces are closed. Most noncritical services are closed. We try to minimize our news consumption, especially TV. Most of us have notices on our home front mobile app of 2-3 locations except where we live, so we get missile alerts every time one of our family members living somewhere else is at risk. I don’t call them 3 times a day because it’s too many phone calls to make, and I don’t want to bother them. But we write short WhatsApp messages when the bombings get heavy.
We sleep in the safe room. Some people sleep in public shelters and some close to their home shelter. These missiles are very big, and their effect is harmful. A staircase isn’t enough – heavy ironed concrete is needed this time.

​

Adapting:
It will take us time to find a way to live under this new threat and reality. I hope they will find a way to end this thing in less than a month. I hope the Iranian regime will fall just like Hizaballa in Lebanon and Assad in Syria. That would be the best-case scenario. The worst case is 6 months to 2 years of long exhausting war.
Based on our experience from a year and a half at war, we’ll have to learn to walk again, like small children – baby steps in this new uncertain reality.

Support from far away:
I find hope in friends and partners that call, write and care for us from afar. We know and feel you’re standing with us. Thank you for that. We’re not so responsive, because we have to get ourselves together a few times a day. But we hear you and feel you. Thank you!
Hope:
I know we’ll make it. I know we’ll find a path. Wandering Jews have found new paths for thousands of years. Adapting is part of our spiritual DNA, though some things you never want to get used to.
 
The Soroka hospitol hit:
This morning the Soroka Hospital was hit – for many in Magen Avraham Soroka is a workplace, and for almost all of us – it is where we get treatment, visit patients and more.  Soroka is also the #1 facility that took care of most of the Oct 7, 2023 casualties. This hit was very close to the university campus where many of our members work. We all heard the sounds. We get testimonies from first hand. This one is very very close. Too close, I feel.

​

Next:

Tomorrow, I hope we’ll be allowed to hold a small musical Kabbalat Shabat. I hope this can be a small relief for some of our members, and for me too. Sometimes, I feel loneliness and anxiety are as dangerous as missiles in the long run. This is probably not a masterpiece newsletter. It’s more of a status report.

Apologies 😉

I hope you’re safe, wherever you are.

Israel is strong. We stand together. Am Israel Chai!

Rabbi Yos

​

** I thank Magen Avraham & my friend Rabbi Harold Kravitz for commenting and helping me better this spontaneous text.