Sunday, April 14th, 2024
A Story and A Song
On Saturday night Toronto time, Iran shot hundreds of missiles into Israel. Like others here in Canada, I watched news reports and online videos of the Iron Dome repeatedly zapping the missiles. I was glued to the screen, my stomach tied in knots.
On Sunday, I heard from some of my relatives in Israel, all of whom appear to be in pretty good spirits, all things considered. It is surreal more than anything, and I believe that with the turmoil right now, we need to follow their lead. Attitude is everything. With that in mind, I’m sharing with you two things that lift my spirits. A story and a song. First, the story.
Alon Mesika is a jeweler in Israel. On October 6, his 23-year old son Adir came over for Erev Shabbat dinner, after which Adir and his friends packed up their cars with tents and food and drove off to enjoy the Super Nova Festival. The next morning, Adir and many of his friends were murdered by the Hamas terrorists. After getting through shiva and then shloshim, Alon felt empty, empty, empty. He observed how everyone in the country was mobilized, every individual was needed for this war.
One day, Alon received a video from one of his son’s friends, showing a wedding taking place on their army base. There were thousands of soldiers in attendance, and an idea occurred to Alon. He posted a notice on Facebook announcing that he would provide, free of charge, a diamond engagement ring to the first soldier to get in touch with him, any soldier who wanted to propose marriage to a girlfriend. Within six minutes, a soldier reached out. They met, Alon gave him the ring, and the soldier went off to ask his girlfriend to marry him.
As you might imagine, a lot of other soldiers would be reaching out as well. What Alon didn’t anticipate, however, was that he found that he couldn’t say no to any of them. One after another, Israeli soldiers came to Alon and selected beautiful half-carat engagement rings on gold, white gold, platinum, whatever they wanted. All free of charge. To date, Alon has provided 81 free diamond rings to young soldiers getting engaged. He says the best part is getting a hug from each soldier. Alon has a gorgeous outlook, and as he wipes the tears from his eyes, I do the same while he finishes telling the story. He says, “Hamas took Israeli lives, preventing them from building Jewish homes in Israel. I’m doing the opposite. My son Adir z”l will not be building a home in Israel, but because of him, now many others will.”
And now for the song. This is a music video from a band called “Hatikvah 6” and the song is called “Am Giboray Al” which means “A Nation of Superheroes.” This video has English subtitles, but I suggest that after you’ve watched it once or twice and gotten the gist of what the lyrics are about, watch it on YouTube with no subtitles*. You’ll catch things that you missed.
Indeed, a nation of superheroes. Super-dupe-r heroes. Let’s follow the lead of the amazing Israelis. I don’t know how they keep their spirits up, but if they can do it, we have no excuse.
Am Yisrael Chai!