“There is no mortal way out of this; we need Hashem to carry us through”
Ever since the IDF’s surprise attack on Iran, the residents of Eretz Yisrael have been living a high-alert existence. High-alert doesn’t mean a lockdown or constant emergency. It’s a strange state where life proceeds in some fashion, minus some big chunks of the usual “normal” (if normal can be said to exist in a land so spiritually sensitive to our every deed and misdeed).
In this altered reality, there is a constant awareness that we’re living in the crosshairs — and constant appreciation and gratitude for many outright miracles. Maybe that’s why the intangible cable linking our apartments in the Mideast to our families across the world seems taut right now. In some ways we feel closer than ever before — the phone calls, emails, and messages of concern and caring keep coming. But in some ways we feel very far.
I asked a few friends and workmates — all of them privileged to live in a land rocked by fear yet caressed by miracles — to help tease out what is it, really, that we wish our families and friends across the ocean would know.
“I think it’s nice when people reach out to just let us know that they’re thinking of us,” one friend said. But, a few others pointed out, there’s no way we can really explain what it’s like. It’s not geography or the time difference that separates us. It’s the fact that we live in a different reality.
Create a free account to keep reading.
