Hanukkah Light in the Darkness - Day 6

We need more light in the darkness.

The following essays are my inner thoughts in these dark days, published for the celebration of Hanukkah, the holiday we, Jewish people, celebrate for the past 2187 years (yes, in 164 BCE the Jewish people, in the Land of Israel, also known as Zion, were able to yet again have their religion freedom in the temple).

Day 6 - Terrorism and Mental Health

I’ve been relatively lucky. My family is doing well. We are working and studying. We live in a (relatively) safe and peaceful country. My parents and siblings are doing OK. They live in the center of Israel, and are mostly OK. My family-in-law live closer to the Gaza Strip and have been under missile attacks on a regular basis for so many years now, that they are “used” to it. Everyone is alive and well, and we pray it will stay that way.

I know people who lost loved ones on October 7. I know people who are waiting for their friends who were kidnapped by Hamas. Israel is a small country, and we are not so many people. Less than 10 Millions Israelis, many of us live abroad. But it’s like the population of a large American city. It’s easy to know someone who knows someone. And our shared history and experiences have merged us together, no matter where we came from, into a nation. A nation connected to it’s long roots, more than 3000 year old roots. A nation with a vision to the future, building something amazing together.

But the physical terrorism that killed so many of us, one that didn’t start on October 7, but many many years before, and manifested now in the shape of the monstrous Hamas, brought with it also a mental terrorism.

Our mental health has been caught in the spider web.

We are devastated at all the civilian and soldiers loss we have endured, and the loss we have to inflict on other civilians, no matter how much we are trying to minimize it.

We want to mourn the beloved people who lost their lives, but we are in continued defensive mode, protecting ourselves.

We are angry at our leaders who didn’t protect us, but we need to give them time to do their work. We are even angrier at the world, that turns a blind eye at us. But we are mostly angry at Hamas and other terrorist groups and countries, and all the people who support them, as they do not want peace, but rather to kill each one of us.

We are afraid. Not only around Gaza, or around Israel. We are afraid all over the world. Because we see what is becoming of the world. We see how the old unjustified hatred to us is still there, coming from under the surface all over the world.?

Many of us are trying to show only courage. Not to show we are upset, or angry, or afraid. But you should know that we are. With all the brave faces, the knowledge that we will prevail - and we will come over this like we did on so many other terrible occasions - deep inside, we are a nation in trauma. Each and every one of us.?

I am working hard to get the courage and energy from many of my friends who have this amazing ability to move on. But I know they are hurting too. We all are.

Time will heal us. But we will never forget.