Israel Today

This isn't a political blog.  I don't always chat about what's going on from the 'Jewish' perspective, because this is more a blog about my life- the life of a Jewish mother.

I didn't write about the boys who were kidnapped a few weeks ago.  I didn't write about the search for them, or the horrible ending that they suffered.  But today, I am writing about the violence and the tragedy that's occurring right now in Israel.

Right now there are rockets being launched at targets across Israel.  I sit in my home, certainly a week or so if not days away from going to deliver a baby, and I can't help but think about the other women who are having babies around the world.  Women in the same circumstance as me.  Who, rather than worrying about whether the babies bedroom is cute enough, and if they have packed enough snacks for their husband at the hospital, are worrying about whether they will need to be in a bomb shelter when they should be on the way to the doctor.

Worrying whether there will be enough doctors to go around, since almost 60 people have died since the attacks began.  Worrying about whether the hospital is safe, the roads are safe and whether she knows enough routes to the hospital for when the time comes and a bomb or rocket has blocked some of them.  Maybe her husband is in the IDF (isn't everyone in the IDF?) and is prepared to get called back up again at a moments notice to defend the country.

We take it for granted that we are in a safe place.  We take it for granted that yesterday my daughter went to school, came home, played outside screaming her head off on her swing.  That I don't know, and neither does she, where the nearest bomb shelter is.  When she thinks about the most recent thing that scared her it was a scuba man at the Aquarium of the pacific and she hid behind Mommy's legs because "mommy is nice."

So this week, as hell breaks loose on the other side of the world, think about those people.  When you light your Shabbat candles, add in a little prayer for peace.

When you take your children home from school, add in a little thought about those kids who aren't going to school right now, since Hamas tends to favor rockets launched at schools and gathering places.

I stand here as an American Jew not quite knowing what to do.  How to help, and how to make any kind of impact at all.  Except to say that I think G-d listens, hears all of us, and hopefully will help the leaders on both sides find some amount of peace.

Naughton321 cc