I used to never know that we fast on 10 Tevet.
At the school where I studied in Tel Aviv, Ten Tevet was actually marked on the calendar as an important date, there was even a ceremony in the auditorium: we celebrated Bialik's birthday. To this day, this detail helps me in trivia games. As I grew older, I came full circle when I also encountered the date of his death: 21 Tammuz (before his time this man died, and the poetry of his life in the middle ceased - he managed to write this line anyway).
But despite the love for the national poet, Y. Tevet is a piece of date for other reasons and with mostly other roles. The first is to remember that on the tenth of Tevet the siege of Jerusalem began, a siege that heralded a terrible year and a half, which eventually led to the fall of the city walls, fierce battles and the destruction of the Temple. and a second function - General Kaddish Day in memory of the deceased and murdered whose burial place is unknown and in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
Each of the functions of this day is sad, heart-wrenching and whetting the appetite.
Students who studied at Ulpana and now teach there, photo: Herzi Shapira
Morning in the studio
Towards the time I was invited to speak to the girls of Ulpanat Neve Hanna in Gush Etzion. The coordinator said that the eighths had prepared a ceremony, followed immediately by my lecture. I arrived early and earned one of the most exciting and exciting ceremonies. A limited timeline of black bristols adorned the minimalist stage: 588 BC – the year the siege began, 1939 – the year World War II began, 1948 – the establishment of the state, and 2023 – the year the eighth massacre took place and the war began, which has not yet been decided what it would be called, and this discussion is a great distraction from the fact that its goals have not really been decided.
Girls in Ulpana, Photo: Yehoshua Yosef
On the wall - a phrase we are used to singing on Seder night: "And she who stood for our forefathers and for us... And the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hands." A phrase that refers to God's promise to save us from the troubles that frequently come upon the Jews, each time from a different place. Grades 80-75 in a full auditorium and staff who don't have to worry about disciplinary problems sang verses composed by Gush resident Maj. (res.) Yossi Hershkovitz two days before he fell in Gaza, read passages they wrote alone and connected the existential challenges from two thousand years ago to those from <> years ago, <> years ago and two months ago. There was truth and faith in this ritual as clear as good and evil. Truth and faith without sophistication, the kind that encounter in the public discourse mainly articles from the field that have no commentary, only the spirit of the soldiers who are in the field, imbued with a sense of mission.
It takes a lot of courage to educate children to a historical and national consciousness that refuses to close its eyes, a consciousness that knows how to link the siege to the Holocaust, the state and war. But this consciousness is necessary in order to sustain the State of Israel here. This consciousness is necessary in order to leave work, livelihood, home and children and go to Gaza. The state must have such children and such educational institutions in order to exist. Parents who choose to educate such an engaged and conscious generation know that when the time comes, their education will come to fruition, and they may pay a heavy price. It's a very big responsibility.
Ulpana lesson, photo: Yehoshua Yosef
Sedentary lunch
Not far away, in Efrat, a conversation took place at noon with Zvika Mor, whose son, Eitan, was kidnapped in Gaza. He was invited to strengthen grades 9-12 at the Neve Shmuel Yeshiva High School, which lost seven of its graduates in battle in the Gaza Strip. Zvika is an educator himself at another yeshiva, the high school yeshiva in Kiryat Arba, which also lost seven of its graduates in the current war alone. He begins with simple things about Eitan and tells us that he is a good boy who rents an apartment in Nachlaot with roommates, and always when he comes home for Shabbat the first thing he sends his parents for a nap, checks what they haven't had time to cook yet and ticks the pots needed until candles are lit; That he was making fun of his seven brothers, and that on one of the last Saturdays he was at home, after the meal, like that with the crackers, a conversation broke out about the Shalit deal. There was a lively discussion and Eitan said: "If I am captured in the reserves, I do not want them to release terrorists in exchange for me and endanger other people."
Ohad and Keren Munder transferred from Hamas to Red Cross personnel, photo: Arab networks
Zvika shares with the audience at the beit midrash the amazing detail told by an eyewitness: Eitan his son, together with Elyakim Libman, were at the Nova party as security guards. Using an ATV they found in the field before the massacre attack, wounded people were evacuated all morning. At noon, the two found the bodies of two victims and decided to evacuate them to a nearby pit, lest the terrorists find them. The eyewitness overheard a conversation between the two men and forces on the ground, in which Libman and Moore asked to "evacuate the girls so that it wouldn't happen like Goldin and Saul." They managed to disguise the first body. When they tried to prevent the abduction of the second body, they were kidnapped themselves.
One of the photos that appeared in the investigation into the October 7 massacre, photo: AP
"Every fighter who left home and left a family behind actually picked up a big sign that read: 'I love the people and the country more than myself.' Otherwise, why did he go out to fight? After all, it's dangerous in battle. Sometimes it is difficult for outsiders to understand, after decades of individualistic Western upbringing, how warriors think about the whole. I, too, personally receive messages: 'You gave up on your son, you don't love your son,'" he says, continuing to hug his son's large picture, as he has been doing since the beginning of the meeting. "But that's exactly what my son would want me to say. I know exactly what he's thinking. How do I know? I educated him.
"The families of abductees are not the most miserable in the world. There are families of the murdered, families of the fallen, families of the wounded, we are all in a difficult reality. If we think about the common good and not just our own good, we can fight properly and win."
Wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us