Thursday morning August 7
Chabad-Lubavitch of Wisconsin....making a difference
Barzilai Hospital is in Ashkelon, in the south of Israel. Many of the wounded soldiers were taken to Barzilai. Thank G-d as of today there are only eight wounded soldiers in Barzilai and four are on their way home. I visited with them today, to thank them for their bravery and brotherly love, and of course to share the Chabad-Lubavitch of Wisconsin message of mitzvos and good deeds undertaken on their behalf.
Benny is a 40 year old "miluimnik" - a reservist and a veteran of earlier wars. He was wounded 10 days ago but is thank G-d making slow and steady progress. His mother Michal is overjoyed with his progress and very grateful that he is alive.
Benny has a nine year old daughter who is afraid to come visit him. Actually she is afraid of everything. Ashkelon is another city within firing range of Hamas missiles. The past few weeks have been so hard on everyone, but for a little girl, whose parents are recently divorced , who lives with her dad, is contending with the fear of falling rockets, dealing with her father disapearing off to war, experiencing her father wounded in battle is just too much for a little girl to deal with.
Michal shares this with me, and Benny nods as she speaks and it is clear he is longing for his daughter.
I had brought the files of resolutions with me to the hospital and waited for the groups of visitors to leave ( there are groups of visitors who come all the time. Tourists from America, Jews from other countries who come to show their solidarity with Israel and with the soldiers), so that I could properly explain what the file contained to each individual. But Benny didn't want me to just leave the file with a brief explanation, he asked me to read the resolutions to him. He wanted to hear the names and the messages of friendship and support. As I read, he kept on murmuring "lo l'ha'amin" - unbelievable...
Benny is not an observant Jew. He lives a very secular life and is the CO of an engineering company in Ashdod, but he was very emotional about the fact, and in his words honored, that American Jews who did not know him, were prepared to undertake Mitzvot for his sake.
Marcia Blonder wrote...
With warmest regards--