Fighters wrote letters in a Torah book inside the city of Gaza. Until now, during the war, Torah scrolls were already brought into the Gaza Strip where soldiers read, but today, for the first time, the soldiers had the privilege of participating in a unique mitzvah of writing a Torah scroll right on the front line.
About 12 years ago Rabbi Yehuda Alon started a project called "Letters of Love". The goal of the project is to connect every Jew and Jewess in the world to the Torah book. His motto is that just as if one letter is missing in a book the whole book is invalid, so every Jew is necessary for the completion of the nation.
Rabbi Yehuda travels around the world and engages Jews from all over the world and from all shades of the spectrum of Israeli society in writing a letter in the Torah book. In the beginning, Ofir Liebstein, the head of the Shaar HaNegev Regional Council, who heroically fell on Black Shabbat while trying to save his residents, joined the project. Liebstein, who was far from defining himself as observant, saw great value in the project and claimed that the Jewish identity is ultimately what will unite us.
Fighters wrote letters in the Sefer Torah in Gaza
Yesterday, Rabbi Alon decided to share this exciting project in the reserve battalion in which he serves, a battalion that has been deep in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the ground maneuver. In a special operation, he entered with a parchment and a quill, went around among the teams scattered in the destroyed city buildings, and shared with the fighters in writing a letter in the Sefer Torah.
The reservists, religious and non-religious, reacted with great excitement and some even had difficulty holding back their tears. One of the soldiers shared that this was the most exciting moment in the war for him.
Rabbi Yaron Adorian said: "This book, written on the edge of Gaza, perhaps summarizes the story of this war that the State of Israel entered into 50 days ago, on the holiday of the Torah. The deep roots embodied in the black letters on the white paper are the story that connects us, for whose name and strength our soldiers fight with dedication."