Simchat Torah, last year October 7th, 2023, will forever be etched on our national conscience.
For me, this day is punctuated by silence, the silence of our broken hearts, the silence where our sons and daughters once stood, the eerie silence from the hostages, from whom we have no proof of life.
But – it's also the silence of those who don't say anything, but whose lives were irrevocably changed that fateful day. It's the soldiers who now suffer from traumatic brain injuries, and where a proud and straight-backed young man once stood, there now remains only a glimmer of who he was. It's the amputees, whose missing limbs bear witness to the atrocities committed, and whose bodies will always tell the story of their sacrifice. It's IDF soldier Eden Buchari who lost his arm and the uber-inspirational double amputees Mitan Masan and Amitay Argaman and countless others.
It's Israel's beloved singer Idan Amedi, who has the whole of Israel behind him, but who just wants his friend Akiva back.
It's the soldiers recently returned from Gaza, only to be called to Lebanon a few days later. It's their wives who struggle to keep everything afloat, as money is suddenly tight and children are unsettled.
It's our hero Tashager Tawaba, who had to face the impossible choice between going back to save his soldiers from certain death and saving the residents of Kfar Aza and who has to deal with feelings of guilt and loss.
And it's the dead, who were so full of life and joy, who just wanted to dance and enjoy peace. It's the Kedem Siman-Tov family, the parents and their 5.5-year-old twin daughters and 2 year old son who were all murdered by Hamas terrorists in their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, and which doesn't exist anymore. And the Kapsheter family who were on a camping trip in Park Ashkelon, racing back home when they heard the air raid sirens, only to be shot to death in their car.
It's MK Gadi Eisenkot, a member of Israel's War Cabinet, who lost his beloved son Master Sgt. Gal Meir Eisenkot.
It's Rif Harush's father Avi and Hagai Lober who write devastating Facebook posts you wish you hadn't read– because the pain is so real and there's no getting away from it.
It's the family who lost their two daughters in a shelter which was supposed to protect them but which it ended up being a death trap.
It's beautiful Hersch Goldberg-Polin who became beloved to all of us, who truly was a 'child of light and joy' as his mother Rachel eulogized him at his funeral, after fighting with all of her might to bring him home.
It's the ZAKA volunteers who saw horrific cruelty and tragedy.
It's the woman who found a little girl after terrorists cut off her hand and she lay in bed alone and shaking as she `slowly bled to death.
It's the silence at the cemetery and at the Nova Festival site, where people who had their whole lives ahead of them, lives filled with passion and purpose, are now gone and in their place, there are only pictures and the memories stored in the hearts of their loved ones.
We will never forget how bright the world shone with all of you in it and we will never stop missing you.