For sale: Sofa. Never used.
A newly-wed couple ordered a sofa for their home. It was delivered later than anticipated. Too late. By the time it arrived at their apartment the husband had been murdered by Hamas terrorists.
All the usual things, regular life, a new sofa, all of this has been cruelly and unequivocally appropriated to October 7th. The language we now use again: Pogroms, Holocaust, massacre.
Sayings we used, we now can’t. I mean how can you ever say again: ‘we need to pick up the pieces’ after what happened in the Gaza envelope?
Our dreams have been invaded. Regular meetings that had a sense of order turn their head. A lawyer in a ‘regular’ work meeting says he is on reserve duty and identifies bodies. That he has too much work to do there but could spare a couple of hours. Almost three weeks after.
All this is to say that what we are facing in Israel is nothing less than an onslaught on our sense of being alive.
The temptation to collapse into melancholy, rage, despair, and fear is imminent and ubiquitous.
We’re at the edge of a precipice. And we are taking a giant step back. Collectively.
I cannot exaggerate how much energy, effort and courage is going into this step. It is gargantuan. What I am describing is an internal and external battle by all of us now in Israel to be able to smile again, breathe again, sleep again.
And we have begun. We are talking about the atrocities. We are getting married. We delight in newborn babies. We are going out just a little to spend time with our partners. We are giving endlessly. We are protecting our country.
I’m a believing person but never felt so close to faith as I do today. It is faith in the people of Israel and the Jewish People. We have grit. And honesty. And intense love. So much love we can tear ourselves apart at times. But today it is our most potent source of strength. A love for each other.
A belief in this country. Israel is the place where our covenant of destiny and our covenant of fate meet: It is the place which both gives us sublime purpose, and indiscriminately connects us in the face of our enemies.
With this awareness, we are fighting the fight of our lives.
My friend told me it reminds her of her fight when she battled cancer.
Our purpose has never been clearer. To live as free people in our homeland. To be alive. Again.
This isn’t like another war. This is the battle for the re-creation of Israel. It is our 1948. And I know that we are ready. We have the resourcefulness and courage and tenacity to face evil and be good and healthy and broken but whole again.
I know there will be a day not far from now that a young couple will curl up for their first kiss on that sofa, that kids will jump on that sofa, they will be told to ‘get off that sofa now’, parents will fall asleep and dribble indelicately on that sofa, grandparents will hold hands on that sofa. That sofa will be used. By us all. 💔