included names and smiling pictures of the victims - attached to the front of their homes . They stated : “ this is where ( insert name ) was killed / brutally murdered or taken hostage .” It was unimaginably real , sad , and heart-breaking .
Then we were shown the destroyed homes of two of the three young men who were taken hostage then accidentally killed by the IDF just days before our visit to their now burned-out homes , which they could have helped rebuild . That caused my heart to break even more . There were no tears , just emotional paralysis . Words were insufficient to describe to each other what we were seeing and experiencing . We said “ it is such a shame ”/ ל ב ח but it is just not enough .
I saw the repair to the fence where the killers entered the kibbutz . I just shook my head , aghast as to the pain and fear that descended upon the members of each Kibbutz where attacks took place , shortly after the perimeters were breached . It was an overwhelming experience to be where our people were slaughtered and treated so inhumanely . There was no ignoring the fact that we were walking where killers had shot people and ended lives and dreams . We walked the paths that had been home to our people and will be again .
We must have hope . We must learn how to simultaneously hold despair and hope . Both can and do exist at the same time .
Rabbi Len Muroff is rabbi at Temple Beth Ohr in La Mirada , CA .
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