On Shabbat, as Orthodox Jews do, I spend a lot of time in the synagogue. I have my regular place where I sit during morning prayers and in the afternoon during my Torah study.
A few weeks ago, during morning prayers, an Israeli family suddenly sat in the seats behind me, which I didn’t like at all. My community consists mostly of “chutznikim”, people like me who immigrated to Israel as adults. So we are civilized compared to “sabras” – real Israelis. We don’t chat during prayers; we stay in our seats and try to concentrate on conversation with God.
A chaotic priestly family
The new family consists of some boys who obviously have a hard time sitting still, which disturbs my holy meditation. Apart from that, however, they are very nice – always in a good mood and they are even Cohanim. So they are descendants of the biblical Aron, the first high priest (Cohen) of the people of Israel.
As Cohanim, the family recites the priestly blessing over the community during morning prayers, and one of them is the first to be called upon to recite the blessing over the Torah before the Torah reading. In the past, we did not always have Kohanim during our community’s Shabbat prayers and now we regularly have three, which we are very happy about.
A few weeks ago, I asked the father why his eldest son had not come to morning prayers, and he replied that he was currently deployed in Rafah in Gaza. “Kol HaKavod!” (Respect!) I replied, “May he be safe and successful!”
Last Shabbat, I saw the young man during the midday prayers when he was the first to be called upon to recite the blessing over the Torah. He was wearing shorts, flip-flops, smiling and did not look at all like a scary soldier. But how many 19-year-olds with their “baby faces” look like hardened soldiers?
The horrific news
That Sunday morning, the first thing I heard from my wife was: “Do you know the boy from our community who was critically injured in Rafah?”
“Excuse me?” I thought I was hearing things and immediately looked at the messages in our community’s WhatsApp group. Yes, there it was. The unnamed, seriously wounded soldier I had read about in the news the evening before was our Cohen! I had seen him just yesterday afternoon, and this morning he was in critical condition in the hospital. He had apparently returned to his unit in the Gaza Strip just after sundown. Apparently, the building in Rafah where he was located was hit by a Hamas anti-tank missile.
Our community immediately organized prayer sessions and even a bus that took us to the Western Wall to pray for “our” boy. Since then, we have been reciting Psalms, praying regularly for his recovery, and trying to support the family as best we can.
It has been several days now in which I have not heard anything new about the condition of our “holy” soldier, and I must admit, I am afraid to ask. As long as I do not hear anything, he is still alive and so it shall remain.
If you would like to join us in praying for Yoni, pray for a full recovery for Yehonatan Aharon ben (son of) Yisraela.
