Carved Into My Heart
On the afternoon of October 6, 2023,
I felt something changing.
The hostile WhatsApp groups I followed
suddenly exploded with hatred.
Message after message.
Anger. Threats. Celebration of something
I could not yet see.
Something felt wrong.
When Shabbat entered,
I tried to reach someone in Israel.
No answer.
It was Shabbat.
And while Israel became quiet,
somewhere in the darkness
evil was preparing to break that silence.
The next morning, I woke up.
And the world I knew was no longer the same.
The images that reached me that morning
are carved into my heart forever.
Images I wish I had never seen.
Faces I will never forget.
Stories that still hurt three years later.
Today, my thoughts are with those
who lost their lives on October 7,
with the soldiers who fell protecting their country,
with the hostages who never came home,
and with everyone who was taken from this world
during the long years of war that followed.
But today, I think especially
of those who remained.
The mothers and fathers.
The husbands and wives.
The children.
The brothers and sisters.
The friends.
The people who somehow had to learn
how to wake up every morning
with an empty chair,
an unanswered phone,
a voice they can only hear in their memories,
and a place in their heart
that nobody else will ever fill.
To all of you,
I send my love, my energy, and my strength.
There are wounds that time cannot erase.
There are people we do not "move on" from.
We simply learn to carry them differently.
And perhaps, little by little,
you will become stronger.
Not because you have forgotten them.
But because you carry them with you.
In every memory.
In every story.
In every tear.
In every smile that eventually returns.
They lived.
They loved.
They mattered.
And they will not be forgotten.
May their memory forever be a blessing.
Am Yisrael Chai. 🇮🇱
#TimeToStandUpForIsrael