*Translation by Janine Muller Sherr
They have every reason to despair.
During the disengagement from Gaza (in 2005), they were evacuated from their homes in Gush Katif with tears in their eyes, while warning against nightmarish scenarios like the one that unfolded on October 7th.
From the sands of Gush Katif they moved to the sands of Eshkol
(between Ashkelon and Be’er Sheva near the Gaza Strip). There they made the desert bloom and built a new settlement, Shlomit.
On the morning of Simchat Torah, their first-response team went out to help defend the neighboring settlement, Pri Gan, that was attacked by terrorists. They managed to rescue Pri Gan from the slaughter. Four members of Shlomit fell in the battle.
Their community was forced to evacuate again. They haven’t been home in four months. Cramim Resort of the Isrotel Hotel Chain (in Kiryat Anavim near Jerusalem) is an exclusive hotel where guests go to be pampered for a few days. But it’s not a place to stay for a hundred days.
I met this community two days after Simchat Torah. Even at that time, amid all the chaos, they had already organized Torah classes for their children. One of the children there explained to me: “There is a war in Gaza. We need to give them a lot of strength.”
And now, finally, they are going home. Before leaving the hotel, they organized an event to express their gratitude to the hotel staff. They thanked everyone, from God Himself to the CEO of the hotel to the custodian staff. They gave each of them gifts and the cards they attached were written in three languages: Hebrew, English, and Thai for the Thai workers.
But their true language is the language of love and of unbroken faith, and it is this faith that will carry them through this crisis.
Welcome home, residents of Shlomit. May you be blessed with peace.
