Update on the war here in Israel

I want to check in with you all, even though you don’t hear from me so much. I really should be better at posting, even though I’m not.
On Shabbat/Yom Tov we were in Jerusalem, in Bayit Vagan. At like 8:30 or so in the morning we started to hear the sirens wailing. Again and again, and lots of booms. Between sirens when I went to shul, I asked the irresponsible teenagers who were like standing on the roof looking out the window what they saw. And they said that the booms were not so much missiles landing, but the iron dome anti-missiles blasting off to knock them out. As the day went on we started hearing via the goy shel Shabbat what was going on in the south.
The news I imagine that you heard, and are hearing. Yemach shemam, animals, worse than animals, nazis.
To a certain extent we who live in the Yerushalayim area, (we live in Beitar), are not so eaten up with fear on a day-to-day basis. Even though the attack on the Jewish people was just mind-reeling, devasting. Still, to a certain extent, on a personal level, at the end of the day, we are far away from the fighting, and I don’t have anyone personally close to me that lives in the area of Otef Aza. So for me it is less a personal matter than a klal Yisrael matter. Let me say it this way: We are used to the sirens from previous times, and sure, we take care. But usually it is just a matter of waiting a certain amount of time, and then going back to normal day to day activity. But we follow what goes on no less than our brethren outside of Israel do.
But yesterday we had a bomb land here in Beitar, a direct hit. That certainly shook us up. In Giv’a A for those that are familiar. Right where there were loads of people. Miracle of miracles only a couple of people were hurt not badly. By badly I mean life-threatening. I think. There is one name that people are asking to pray for, a child Noson Tzvi ben Chaya Esther. Hashem should send him a refuah shelaima.
I want to relate to a certain feeling that has been clearly expressed by people with whom I correspond. The need to do something. To help, to be involved somehow. The natural thought for someone far away is to donate money, but to whom? I don’t want to mix in to that question. Rather I want to relate to it in a different way.
You see, on a physical level we hate the enemy for what he did and is doing, we would like to see his yashvan kicked in so hard that he flies completely out of the ballpark and lands on his head. And we are frustrated by the failure that caused all of this to happen. And we have hope in tzahal and the government that they will turn the situation over to be a victory for us and a downfall for the yemach’shemo’nikers. And whether you are for-bibi or anti-bibi, like I heard on tv watching the Democratic national convention decades ago when I was a kid, “there’s a time to fight, and there’s a time to unite.” This is the time to unite (and to try to stay united).
But on a fuller level, every believing Jew recognizes that the Al-mighty Creator is in charge of everything and in complete control, and this is a time where we have to realize that we are being punished. And like a parent, (and much much more than a parent), punishment is given not in anger, rather as an expression of love. He wants more of us apparently, and each and every person has to figure out how he can improve and otherwise arouse the Attribute of Divine Mercy. So I bow my head in subservience, and ask myself, out loud, so that anyone who can hear and would like to hear can hear also, I ask myself, how can I improve, how can I be a better person, how can I take a step in the direction of what G-d wants from me that I am not there yet?
There are three things that each and every one of us can do that will make a difference in the outcome of this terrible situation. First of all, daven. Daven, daven, and then daven more. Here in Israel we have minyanim that keep going 24 hours a day where people who want to say Tehilim can come say as a community.
Secondly, as above, to try to make an improvement in oneself. The recognition of the Divine wrath that is happening, and the willingness to take a step in the direction of improvement. And there are plenty of ideas in our traditional texts that give examples of ways to improve, like in Pirkei Avot, and in all the sifrei mussar. >> And I promise that every person who takes even a single step forward in improving him or herself will have a direct positive impact in what is going on over here in Israel.
And finally, last but not least, Torah study. There is nothing like Torah study that can flip over Divine wrath to Divine Mercy. Especially when done with the right intention. I often reference the site:
https://www.sefaria.org.il/texts
My hope and my prayer is that we should see the complete destruction of evil and the triumph of goodness very very soon. And I wish all of my readers the very best, a wonderful sweet sweet year, with good health and happiness, nachas from the family (and from yourself), and fulfillment in all that you do.
Boruch Rappaport