Last week, in a single moment of terror, a missile fell near the home of the parents of the Peretz family in Bet Shemesh. The house that had been filled with memories and warmth was reduced to a pile of rubble.
Yet within the total destruction, a great miracle occurred: their beloved mother had been inside the house — and survived. It happened precisely on the yahrzeit of their father. In the midst of everything, the family felt they had received the greatest gift of all: life.
Here is an excerpt from a letter they sent me: “What happened afterward also felt like a kind of miracle. The walls of our parents’ house collapsed and the windows shattered. But through those broken openings, something else entered the house: the spirit of the Jewish people.
“Countless volunteers — complete strangers! — offered to help. Moments of unimaginable pain, of clearing out belongings and dismantling an entire lifetime of memories, became moments of pure kindness, unity and brotherhood.
“Looking around, we saw an extraordinary scene: Uri the kibbutznik was standing next to a ‘hilltop youth’; beside them a haredi volunteer, and nearby a group of teenagers from Bet Shemesh.
“So many good people who worked tirelessly lifting boxes, clearing broken glass, gathering debris. In such painful hours, their presence brought deep comfort.
“We felt we were witnessing what we read in the parasha, how all of the Jewish people came together in remarkable harmony to build the Tabernacle. When everyone accepts a sacred task and joins together to fulfill it, the Divine presence rests among them, and it can be felt!
“Thank you to the Creator of the world for the privilege of being part of this extraordinary people.”
—The Peretz Family, HaNasi Street, Bet Shemesh
A message of faith from Rabbi Yitzchak Biton
During the first week of the war, Rabbi Yitzchak Biton and his wife Tamar lost three of their children, Yaakov, Sarah and Avigail, of blessed memory, in a missile strike that hit Bet Shemesh.
I was at the Grand Court Hotel in Jerusalem, where hundreds of people came to comfort the family.
Most of them had never met the Bitons. Many words of encouragement were shared. I would like to share one thought from the bereaved father himself, Rav Yitzchak Biton:
“People speak to me about the binding of Isaac. The sages teach that this is what gives us strength.
“All of our patriarchs and matriarchs endured trials. Because they are the foundation of our nation, and we are continuing their path, each one of us has inherited their strength. We have received from them faith, love, joy, kindness as well as their self-sacrifice and the ability to overcome adversity.
“I heard a fitting analogy:
“A train cannot travel without tracks. The patriarchs of our nation are the tracks. We are the train moving along the path they already laid. Every Jew carries an inheritance from our holy [ancestors]. Knowing that they faced difficulties and tests, and succeeded in standing strong, gives us strength as well.”
The test facing the Biton family is unimaginable. Yet many people in the room yesterday nodded in agreement.
The blessing for trees
Have you heard of Birkat Ha’ilanot, the blessing recited over trees?
It is said starting from the first day Nisan, and anyone can recite it until the end of the month.
Ideally, it is recited upon seeing two blossoming fruit trees of different kinds standing near one another.
Rabbi Itamar Haykin went outside with his students to recite this blessing, and came back with the following insight:
“There is clinical death, and there is psychological death. In the second case, a person can be walking around alive, but inwardly, something has gone numb. This happens when a person loses his sensitivity and his excitement about life; when he no longer sees the beauty of nature, no longer notices the wonder of existence.
“Our sages say: ‘An evil person, even while alive, is considered dead.’ Why? Because when he sees the sun rise, he does not recite a blessing, and when he sees the sun set, he does not recite a blessing. But the righteous make blessings over everything.
“According to our sages, not making blessings is not just apathy. It is something deeper. It is a kind of wrongdoing toward ourselves, toward a life that is slipping by while the sunrise and the sunset go unnoticed.
“It is a kind of death caused by a lack of gratitude, by the inability to see and thank G-d for His goodness and kindness.
“Then comes the month of Nisan. Once a year, only in the spring, we go out to recite a blessing over the trees. What an opportunity! To stop for a moment. To put aside work, studying, errands, pressure, stress. To step outside into nature, or even to a small patch of earth where two trees are planted, to look at them for a moment, and to recite:
Blessed are You, L-rd our G-d, King of the universe, who left nothing lacking in His world, and created good creatures and good trees for people to enjoy.
“So beautiful. So simple. Afterward, if someone asks you what you did today, you can answer: Today I recited Birkat Ha’ilanot. Today, in the middle of all the noise, I remembered to stop. To look. To notice.”