Even while grieving, these mothers, fathers, siblings and wives take comfort in knowing their loved ones sacrificed their lives for a sacred cause: serving G-d and the Jewish people by defending the Jewish State.
I never thought to appreciate how my son’s warmth and charm would serve him in the army, enabling him to easily form close bonds with his fellow soldiers, bonds so essential, as these brothers would be called upon to support and protect one another, possibly with their very lives.
While the congregant spoke about the difficulty in finding meaning in a child’s death, a visitor sitting on an aisle seat in the men’s section spoke up. “We lost a soldier.”
It was Yom Kippur, October 6th, 1973, when we first heard the news: Egypt and Syria had attacked Israel, unprovoked and without warning. Before we even broke our fast, we tuned in to the news on TV that night. We learned that Egypt had crossed the Suez Canal