B"H
Last night, at an event from the Jewish National Fund (JNF/Keren Kayemet L'Yisrael), three women heroes from the Yishuv of Shlomit spoke about the recent passing for their husbands, who fought heroically to defend the nearby Kibbutz of Prigan. (Shlomit is a religious Yishuv, while Prigan is a secular one, which goes to show how all this talk about a religious/secular divide in Israel is greatly overblown.)
It was a truly memorable and wonderful.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the whole audience. I for one couldn’t stop
crying. At the end of the event, each heroine was asked to their
late husbands with one Middah.
Sefirah/Middah combination for yesterday night was Netzach
shebeChesed shebeGevurah, which very much fit with their descriptions of their husband.
It was also a perfect way to describe the event itself: the ultimate
victory and endurance of our people (they all spoke about continuing the pioneering vision of their husbands in building up the Yishuv), sustained by acts of kindness (in Israel and abroad), and
ultimately powered by the acts of might and heroism of our men and women.
Clearly there are also many parallels with the Parasha, Chayei Sarah, regarding Avraham's mourning for Sarah, the acquisition of the Cave of Machpela in Hebron, etc., but that’s for a different time.
