Miriam Peretz, An Inspiration!!

Miriam's Song

Last night I finished reading one of the most amazing books I've ever read, Miriam's Song--The Story of Miriam Peretz by Smadar Shir.

I'm not a fan of the genre of bereaved parents memoirs. I couldn't finish Noa Lev's book, most probably because I know her; we had been in YU Seminars and Stern College together when teens and have a close mutual friend. It was just too painful, but when I was offered a review copy of Peretz's book, I decided to give it a try.

And I am so glad that I accepted Miriam's Song. I learned so much from it. I know lots, much too many bereaved parents and family members. Each one reacts very differently to such a horrific loss. And I also know others who have buried more than one child.

The story of Miriam Peretz' s life – the story of a mother and a homeland; of love for the Land of Israel, the State of Israel, and the Jewish people; and of the victory of spirit and faith.
1st Lieutenant Uriel Peretz, commander of a Golani Brigade Special Forces unit, dreamed of becoming the first Moroccan chief of staff of the IDF. But his mother Miriam sensed that her oldest son would not leave Lebanon safely. On the day he was drafted, she became a woman waiting for news of disaster.
In November 1998, Uriel was fatally wounded by an explosive device planted by Hezbollah terrorists. He was 22. Miriam transformed the pain over his death into education and volunteer service. She began to visit schools and military bases, talking about her son’s leadership vision. 
Tragically, in March 2010 Miriam was forced to face another test. Her second son, Major Eliraz Peretz, was killed in an exchange of fire in the Gaza Strip. He died almost twelve years after he had eulogized his older brother: “Sometimes we pay a price for doing the right thing. The price of life.” Eliraz, who was 32, left behind a wife and four children, including a baby just two months old.
Overnight, the mother who lost two sons – as well as her husband, whose heart couldn’t bear the death of his oldest son – became a symbol of grief and of strength.

One of the reasons that I was able to get through reading Peretz's book is that she comes from such a different world. Her religious and family background is so different from mine that I was able to easily remove myself from her story. Miriam Peretz was born in Morocco and made aliyah with her very Moroccan Jewish parents to a hut in southern Israel. Although she is a peer age-wise, her childhood and family customs were totally different. Peretz was raised in a family of strong religious faith and Jewish observance. They were always grateful for their opportunities, even if others would consider their living conditions and financial situation horrendous. Peretz was the child who, despite great difficulties, succeeded in propelling herself and her children into the mainstream of Israeli society and IDF.

I must admit that I am envious of the faith that Peretz and her husband had succeeded in transferring to their six children. Over the decades, over half a century since I so enthusiastically and sincerely took on Torah Judaism, due to the influence and inspiration of NCSY, I realize that there's an enormous aspect of Torah living that I hadn't been exposed to and therefore I couldn't pass it on to my children. And our lives have been lacking in the very foundations of faith that Peretz and her late husband Eliezer, Z"L, so lovingly breathed, blessed and imparted to theirs.

Miriam Peretz is seen throughout the world as a woman of strength who had overcome terrible pain and loss, but in her book she admits to us that there are days she couldn't get up, get out of bed or get dressed. She couldn't cook or speak. She is human.

Another thing I liked about the book is that each of her surviving children wrote a chapter. Yes, Miriam's Song--The Story of Miriam Peretz  is like the Biblical Miriam's song; it is not a solo. The Biblical Miriam, sister of Moshe, led the women in song, and Miriam Peretz has led her children to the same tune she sings.

Yes, I highly recommend reading  Miriam's Song--The Story of Miriam Peretz.

• Paperback: 350 pages
• Publisher: Gefen Publishing House (February 15, 2016)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9652298352
• ISBN-13: 978-9652298355

Only in Israel: About 20,000 Attend Funeral of Sean Carmeli, HaYa"D, Lone Soldier

Sean Carmeli, HaYa"D

Yesterday morning we read about the lone soldier from the small Texas town nobody had ever heard of who had been killed in Gaza trying to destroy the Hamas terror infrastructure, Sean Carmeli. Later in the day, emails and facebook messages kept arriving in Hebrew and in English asking that people come to his funeral.

Israel values all of its soldiers; they are our children. Israeli kids are raised knowing that after high school they will be drafted. (I'm not getting into the chareidi draft issue here.) Religious girls frequently take the option to do Sherut Le'umi, National Service and volunteer in all sorts of places, schools, hospitals, memorials etc. Young men who are exempt for various medical reasons quite often petition the IDF to be accepted as official soldier volunteers and get positions suitable for them.

And then there are the new immigrants and foreign IDF volunteers who come to Israel either just to serve or knowing that their choice to be Israeli means that they will be drafted and serve in the army without a mother waiting at home to do their laundry and make sure there's hot food for them. They are the true idealists, and Sean Carmeli was one of them.

When an Israeli born and raised IDF soldier is killed, his funeral is attended by his family, childhood friends of all members, fellow students and those from the neighborhood and more. Funerals here for whomever, no matter what the reason of death, are usually humongous. Here in Shiloh, a small funeral, quickly arranged on a Friday before Shabbat can have a minimum of fifty to a hundred people, and the larger more public funerals, like the triple one for the three teenagers murdered by Arab terrorists a few weeks ago are attended by hundreds of thousands. Compare that to a very recent funeral in New Jersey for a policeman killed, Fallen Jersey City Police Detective Melvin Santiago laid to rest.

JERSEY CITY - The Jersey City police officer who was shot and killed while responding to a report of an armed robbery was laid to rest today.
Hundreds of police officers from around New Jersey and surrounding states came to St. Aloysius Church to pay their final respects to Melvin Santiago. 

IDF Staff Sgt. Sean Carmeli was laid to rest accompanied, honored by about 20,000 people.

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HaMakom yenachem...
May G-d comfort his family and friends

Where are the Socks?

As you can see here, there are socks missing from the display here. We, meaning Yafiz, Sha'ar Binyamin, have been selling out of our supply of army socks. Not only do miluimnikim, IDF reserve soldiers rush in to shop for supplies like socks, towels and even pillows, but last night while I was manning the shoe store, a couple of teenage girls came in to buy a big charity care package for the soldiers. I gave them all the army socks we had, even though they weren't sure they had the budget. Then they went into the clothing department where my boss handled the rest of the order.

No doubt that our supply went to the front-lines.

May G-d conduct this war. In all honesty, I don't trust the politicians. The ordinary Israeli doesn't either. We really would like to wipe-out Arab terrorism once and for all, G-d willing.

Super HH From The Bima

This week's Havel Havelim is humongous. Ima on and off the Bima did a fantastic job organizing the enormous amount of posts sent in.

Considering that there's a war going on here in Israel, as the IDF is trying to make life safer for its civilians, there's hardly a jblogger who didn't post one, two or ten times a day. And not surprisingly most of the posts were sent off to Ima.

Besides the weekly Havel Havelim, Jack has been busy posting daily-plus round ups of posts and articles from the internet. My Shiloh Musings spread south of Shiloh with friends in Nitzan and Netivot. There are many more than just these articles.

As many other Israeli mothers, I'm dreading certain calls from my sons informing me that they've been "called up." I'll embarrass my sons by reporting about it, if/when the time comes. That's part of being an Israeli mother. A generation ago, I was a "wife of a soldier." That's a different role, especially for me, as my husband never had the same sort of front line army job our sons have.

Remember that all of our soldiers are one or more of the following:

• son/daughter
• husband/wife
• brother/sister
• uncle/aunt
• mother/father
• grandchild
• friend
• cousin

Join the prayers for wisdom for our leaders and safe, successful battles, and the safe, healthy return of our soldiers.

Finally

I finally got around to adding a blog to my blogroll I had wanted to add from the first I had heard of it. Luckily she visited mine and left a comment, and I did it.

It's A Soldier's Mother. She has another good blog, This is Israel.

I wonder why it has taken so long for me to do it.

I had four years of full time soldier-mothering. Of that time, the middle two years both my sons were in the IDF. I had them set up their room with storage boxes filled with enough uniforms, socks, gotkes etc so that I didn't have to run the washing machine the minute they came home and pray that the sun would stand still long enough for things to be washed and dried before Shabbat. It took that stress out of the period.

They were in during Ehud Barak's reign of terror, when going to Jerusalem was more frightening than Shechem and Jenin.

My elder son was in Lebanon during the war Ehud Olmert would rather delete from history. If you go to that Havel Havelim I hosted not long ago, you'll see a picture of him.

And now, my baby has milu'im, reserve duty, in a couple of weeks.