An entire nation, your nation, prayed for you 

Photo: Flash90

Dear Ariel and Kfir,

You don’t know me, but I know you. I’m your brother, your friend, from the same loving nation as you, Klal Yisrael. I have prayed for you, cried for you, and hoped for you ever since that horrid day when I saw your pure, precious faces in the news. Your eyes were so innocent, so filled with life, yet so afraid and confused. You came from a world of love, of happiness and peace, and were suddenly thrust into a chaotic world of hatred, bloodshed, and cruelty.

Precious children, you did nothing wrong, and your parents did nothing wrong. Your mother infused you with love, with caring and compassion, for each other and for humanity. Your parents shed tears praying that you would never need to shed your own, that life would bring you only joy and bountiful blessings. You were taught to embrace life, to value friendship, and to respect those around you.

You were given the keys to a bright future, to fulfill the dream your parents dreamed, to walk the path they paved for you. They hoped you would grow up to be good, kind people and bring light into the world. They prayed that your lives would be peaceful; that you would treasure each other and cherish your friends. They hoped that you would appreciate your heritage as Jews and recognize your blessings of being a part of the chosen nation in Hashem’s chosen Land.

On that harrowing day when you were ripped away from your home, your family, you did not understand what was happening. Your pure, innocent minds could not fathom how men of hatred, of cruelty, had penetrated your world of love. You cried watching your mother, your stalwart paradigm of serenity and security, as she wept in fear. Her eyes, eyes that had illuminated your lives with love, pride, and joy, suddenly darkened, dimmed by fear, panic, and horror.

But you must know, Ariel and Kfir, that in those very moments, her eyes also radiated fearless resilience and the same love and compassion for her precious little ones. She held you tight and she would not let you go. You were her light and her life, and her mind raced thinking about how to protect you, to save you from the world of evil and return you to the warm embrace of your home, your family, and your people.

I can only imagine how frightening it was to be suddenly thrust into a world of hatred, plunged into darkness by people of darkness. Unlike the family you knew whose eyes glowed with warmth, the bad men who took you were cold-blooded, heartless, and cruel. Only a savage can hurt a child, only the ruthless can hold a mother and her infants hostage.

Sadly, the world has known many situations in which hostages were taken. but always, a sense of humanity prevailed, and women and children were released. You, Ariel and Kfir, did not receive such treatment because those who captured you were not humans. They were animals, beasts of prey. There are no standards or morals in a world, a jungle, of hatred. They looked at you as enemy number one, and their blood boiled just seeing you because you represent everything they are not: love, life, and love for life.

They claimed that you are no different from their own children who sadly met their bitter ends in this tragic conflict, but they are very wrong. There is no comparison. You were raised in a world of love, and your greatest offense was that you were born as a Jew. Their children, however, were indoctrinated into a world of hatred. The greatest indicator of their evil is the way they sent you and your mother off, back to us. They made a ceremony to cerebrate your deaths. Men, women, and children, infants your age, came to cheer and jeer. You were never taught to celebrate someone’s downfall, certainly not a mother and her children, but they were and they are. This is their life in their world of evil and hatred.

The news also reported that at the procession, little children were given the chance to hold weapons and pose for pictures. Ariel and Kfir: Anyone with a spark of humanity does not celebrate death or reward children by training them, preparing them, to hurt others. No human heart exposes toddlers to the evil they perpetrated and teaches them to applaud it.

I don’t know the Gehinnom you experienced, but I want you to know that not a day passed without me thinking about you, praying for you. Your images were etched in my heart and in the hearts of many. An entire nation, your nation, prayed for you and throughout the world, the world of love and respect for life. People, total strangers, prayed for your swift return.

We held on, hoping beyond hope that you, too, could somehow hold on. We waited for the day when you would return and reenter the world of love you had left behind. Now, we mourn your loss, we mourn your precious smiles and vibrant lives that were snuffed out, extinguished, by inhuman evil.

There is no comfort or consolation. But your souls, your pure, precious, prefect souls have ascended to the real world of love, and you will be ensconced in the embrace of your Father in Heaven. Please, pray for those who prayed for you. Beg Him to bring an end to evil and give those still languishing in the darkness a chance to see the light. And implore him to radiate the world with His boundless love.

Rabbi Akiva Fox lives in Eretz Yisrael and teaches in American yeshivos and seminaries.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1051)