Betty’s Hands

My husband took this photograph of the hands of a 99-year-old Holocaust survivor named Betty this past Friday.
These are the hands of a woman whose entire family was murdered by the Nazis when she was only a teenager. These are the hands of a woman who, after the War, went on to marry and raise a family of her own. These are the hands of a woman who has ridden the ups and downs of a long, full life. With times of sadness and times of nachas as well as an acute appreciation that, as a resident of Israel, and a survivor of the Nazi genocide, she has merited to have a front-row seat of the miraculous rebirth of the Jewish people in the Jewish homeland.
These hands are the hands of a woman who, as Ezekiel prophesied 2600 years ago, were dry bones that grew sinews and skin and returned from death to life: “I [the Lord] open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves as My people, and bring you home to the land of Israel.”
May these be the hands, too, of all the women in Israel today whom death has touched since October 7th.
May these be the hands of Liat, the mother of Ephraim HY”D, her remarkable, beloved oldest son, who fell in Gaza last week.
May these be the hands of Tehilla, whose husband was killed on October 7th, leaving her the 24-year-old widowed mother of 2 girls ages 2 and 5-months.
May these be the hands of Noa, whose husband fell in northern Gaza this past December leaving her a widow in the 9th month of her 1st pregnancy.
May these be the hands of injured IDF soldier Tehila, who survived but saw death all around her, and struggles every day to overcome the injuries on the outside as well as within.
Please, Hashem, bless all of these women. Comfort them. Make these dry bones rise again as these women continue to witness the miraculous rebirth of the Jewish people in the Jewish homeland. In the merit of those they loved, who fought and were lost, HY”D.
Amen!!!!
AMEN!
Thank you for this beautiful reflection. Amen.
Amen!!!