This video is extremely powerful. On Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Remembrance Day, everyone feels the pain. The Jewish people mourn together.
Remembrance Day in Israel
Remembrance Day, in Hebrew known as Yom Hazikaron, is real, and it’s painful. Everyone knows someone who gave his or her life for the Jewish people. And if you don’t know someone personally, you definitely know someone who has lost a loved one. Whether as a soldier or as a citizen of the Jewish state, every life lost was lost for the Jewish people. Every Jew who makes Israel his physical home is defending the land. Some become soldiers and some are “regular” citizens. But there is nothing regular about living in G-d’s chosen land.
Those who lost their loved ones remember them always. But having a specific day to mourn together as a people is powerful. All Jews are brothers. We don’t want to have to remember that through tragedy. But sadly, sometimes that is how we are reminded that we are truly all family.
The sacrifices made by all the soldiers and victims of terror must never be forgotten. We must make their sacrifices worth it. We must live proudly as Jews in our Jewish homeland. They weren’t killed so that we could live somewhere else in the world. They were killed so that we could live freely in our Jewish land.
Each of the 24,213 fallen soldiers and 4,255 terror victims were a world unto themselves. They had friends and families; hopes and dreams. They had feelings and worries. And now all of that is gone.
May we never forget them, and may their memories be a blessing.