I’m glad I could be with my brothers and sisters on day 100 as I was with them on day one

Photo: Flash90

I’ve arrived from America for two weeks to visit my children in Eretz Yisrael and see what I can do in my small way to help the war effort. I know that davening, saying Tehillim, and working on shemiras Shabbos is the best I can do, but perhaps I don’t know it well enough because I still feel I want to do something more tangible.

To be completely honest, my decision to visit Eretz Yisrael is driven also by a desire to address my increasing feelings of detachment from the war. In the beginning, my community and the worldwide chutz l’Aretz community were having weekly, if not daily, y’mei tefillah. We’d each chosen a 15-minute period in the day to recite our heartfelt Tehillim. While I still say mine every single day, and I still receive periodic calls for more Tehillim to be recited, I don’t feel the same urgency.

In the beginning, we checked for updates on the home front and around the world on the hour. There were worldwide Zoom meditations. Everyone was stressed, and we needed to connect because our brothers, sisters, children, and parents in Eretz Yisrael were under attack. This obsessive news checking has mostly petered out, but our family is still under attack! Hamas is as determined as ever to slaughter each and every one of us.