Day 118!
Lessons from the War.
Hannah, the wife of Uriel Cohen shared about her husband who fell in the war.
She shared that one of her husband’s unique qualities was the light that radiated from his face. He had a big smile, kind eyes, a glowing smile.
Our Sages teach us that one of the highest levels of kindness is to give a smile to another, to share the light of one’s joy with another.
Uriel, whose name contains the Hebrew word for light, truly shone the light of Hashem in this world.
When someone passes away, their characteristics are “ up for grabs”.
Maybe we want to catch this characteristic of being a light in someone’s day, dispelling a little darkness. That will be Uriel’s living legacy.
We can be moved to action by his example.
I read about Ditza Or, whose last name means light.
She is the mother of Avinatan Or, who has been kidnapped in Gaza for 118 days.
She shared how she deals with the pain.
Every morning when she wakens, until 11am, she allows herself to feel all the difficult emotions. She cries, she feels afraid. This is the time when her protective mechanisms are low and she allows herself to feel all the feelings.
But after 11am, she closes that gate. She protects her soul. She functions and does what needs to be done for herself and her family.
She acts.
She is not frozen.
She learned this concept from the Tanya, written by Rabbi Shneur Zelman of Liadi.
He teaches that a person should give space for pain in fixed times, times that are set aside in advance.
This allows one to control the pain instead of allowing the pain to be in control.
This is how she copes.
This is an action that can move us. When we are in our own moments of pain, we can hold onto this life giving point of light from Ditza Or.
This is how she acts and functions.
For 118 days.
The next lesson comes from Oriya Mesh HYD.
Another person whose name is built on the root word of light and who we have lost as he fell in Gaza, protecting us.
Another bright light has been extinguished.
But Oriya ztzl left light filled teachings in his notebooks.
One of his teachings:
“If we do not work on correcting our character traits, if we don’t focus on making our souls shine brightly, we are hopelessly stuck and mired in place.”
Oriya is teaching us that we cannot allow ourselves to remain static. We have to continue to move and grow.
This is the legacy Oriya has bequeathed us.
These snippets of greatness are shared by Sivan Rahav Meir.

118 days of war.
118 days of sparks of light.
118 days that are full of greatness and calls to action.
This week’s Torah portion is called Yisro. Yisro was the father in law of Moses. He was a respected member of society from the land of Midian.
The Torah portion begins with words “and Yisro heard”.
Every English teacher will tell their student that “and” is not the proper way to begin a sentence.
Rashi, the super commentator explains that the “and” connotes a connection to what happened before.
Yisro heard about the events that had occurred and it moved him to action.
What did he hear that impelled him to move?
He heard about the miraculous splitting of the sea. And he heard about the unprovoked war the Amalek nation waged against the rear guard of the Jewish nation, attacking the weakest of the people.
Both of those events were marked in that they were only came to be because of the efforts of the Jewish people.
The nation was standing at the edge of the sea and the army of Egypt was behind them. There was no hope. Gd told the people to move forward. It seemed impossible, until a person of faith took the first steps and as a result the sea split.
So too during the war with Amalek, Moses was praying for the success of his people. The Jews were inspired by Moses’ prayer and their faith inspired their fighting and ultimate success.
That is what Yisro heard.
That is what motivated Yisro to leave the comfort of his home and join the Jewish people.
He was inspired by their faith, the points of light that each person exuded.
That is what Yisro wanted to connect to - he heard about the events and he literally had the chills. What Yisro heard, moved him so much, it moved him to action.
That is one of the gifts he left to us.
When we hear about the incredible people who make up our people, it should give us the chills, it should move us to action.
It has been 118 impossible days.
But what we are learning about, the precious nature of our people, must move us, inspire us and lift us to follow in those exalted but determined footsteps.
May their lives and these 118 days not be in vain.
Shabbat Shalom and so much love!