not a good holiday

it is the middle of the night and I can't sleep. Not because of naplag this time but because of the events of the day and through the night, with two of my sons in the process of being called up for service - one was told already to go to the base in the morning (reserves) for combat service and the other is on call in his regular service in a cyber division. From what I see online, my fate for the night is shared by many other Israelis who also can't sleep for similar reasons.

You can all read the news yourselves, if you are not already familiar with what is happening in Israel. All I will do, all I can do, is share with you my experiences from the day of Simchas Torah.

My day started as I woke a little bit after 6am. Shortly after waking up I realized I was hearing the all too familiar dull sound of rockets in the distance. It was unusual because it has been mostly quiet on that front for the past few months. I went out to the porch in what started as a beautiful morning with a nice cool breeze, only to continue hearing the incessant booms with some distant faint sirens as well. When my wife woke up I told her we are likely at war - this wasnt just a few booms, this was nonstop and had already been going on for a while. We discussed what to do about shul and I decided to go and see what happens. 

By the time shul began, everyone had a nervous energy, unsure of what was happening and what to do. 

Services got on the way, and were eventually interrupted by sirens warning of incoming rockets. We went down to the rooms below, while not actually bomb shelters or safe sealed rooms, they are safer and more protected rooms. After being in and out a couple time sin close proximity we decided to daven in the courtyard instead of going back up to the sanctuary, to be closer to the protected rooms. We finished up through the Hallel prayer and upon consultation with the rabbi, the gabbaim decided to have a brief kiddush at that point, to be followed by the Torah reading and musaf with the hakafos to be postponed until after musaf. I think the logic was that it would be important to finish with the actual obligations in case we might be more limited as the day goes on, and do the hakafot later if possible which isnt an actual obligation. 

At that point rumors and whispers were starting to come in as people who joined late were coming in and letting people know what they had heard (from cleaning ladies, non-religious people, EMT alerts, and the like), but it was still just bits and pieces and nothing concrete. Some family members of mine came then and told me some details they had heard from my son who was called by his reserves commander and told to start getting prepared to come in for service, but to wait for further instructions. So then we knew the border had been infiltrated, Jewish towns were under terrorist control, many dead and injured, many abducted back to Gaza, it sounded insane and I still did not know what to believe, what was exaggerated, and what was maybe even worse than reported. The only bright spot was that I was told Israeli news still did not have any real information and reports were all based on Arab/Hamas reports which might be exaggerated as part of their propaganda. 

Torah reading was interrupted a few times by sirens as well, but eventually that finished. As more people came to shul, expecting hakafot, it became more difficult to go up and down with the sirens in a timely fashion.  Shortly after someone else came rushing from another shul and said he had gone from  shul to shul to tell them to say tehillim, it seems he had been given some information as well. We stopped and said some tehillim and then continued the services with musaf said not fast but a bit quicker than usual. While some stayed after for an abbreviated set of hakafot, I decided to leave, feeling it not being a time for dance and celebration. The Rabbi announced they would have a very short hakafot but it was ok for anyone who felt it inappropriate to leave and skip. 

We went home, had lunch, discussed what was happening. With not much being updated over the rest of the day, I went back to mincha to find out about others young men, sons of friends, who had been called up or on standby like my son. We finished the holiday, turned on our phones and computers and discovered it was far worse than what we had been told earlier in the day. It seemed inexplicable why there had been no significant Israeli response throughout the day, let alone how it possibly could have happened, by nightfall the tide was starting to turn as Israeli soldiers started to fight in a more organized and focused manner and take back towns and recover hostages that had not yet been whisked off to Gaza. 

So, how was your holiday? How did things go down by you?

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