Kinderlach, Go Home

Today I participated in Shevach’s amazing day trip to Gush Etzion.
We visited a bunch of places (this photo was taken at the Herodian) but the place that made the deepest impression on me was Kefar Etzion and the story of the brutal 1948 massacre of 242 Gush-Etzion kibbutz members (among them 22 women as well as 18 Holocaust survivors who survived Hitler only to be slaughtered by Arabs 3 years following liberation.)
In 1967, immediately following the 6 Day War, the orphans of those murdered pioneers, by then young adults, met with president Levi Eshkol to request permission to return to Kfar Etzion to breathe life into the dry bones of their parents’ dream. “Kinderlach,” Eshkol famously told them, “you want to finally return home? So return home.””
It filled me with awe to hear about these brave pioneers’ unwavering determination, their willingness to risk their lives to establish a Jewish foothold in this Holy Land.
This caused me to think about what more I, like them, can do for Eretz Yisrael.
And I also thought about the joy they would feel to see the booming Gush Etzion bloc of today populated by 27,000 Jews. Countless beautiful families, countless happy, healthy, Jewish children who have finally come home.
The joy those fallen heroes would feel to see that, upon occasion and most notably on this occasion, those who sow with tears today reap with joy, b”H.