Signs like this appear all over Jerusalem. This particular sign appears on the road exiting Jerusalem. The homemade sign reads: "Soldier, Thank you for watching over us. Come home in peace!"Amen....
Yesterday I attended a prayer rally at the Kotel. I stood next to my friend, Yael, as prominent Jerusalem rabbis led us in the recitation of Psalms. King David (who authored most of the book of psalms), had a way of penetrating the human soul and capturing the deepest of fears, joys and inner-workings of human beings. The Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Metzger, urged the crowd, which filled the entire plaza extending upwards from the kotel, to have special kavana (intention) for the kidnapped soldiers when reciting the last verse of chapter 142: "Release my soul from confinement to acknowledge Your Name.."
Standing next to us was Yael's mother and her neighbor from Ramot, whose son has been stationed on the southern border of Lebanon for the past week. Yael told me that her neighbor's son is allowed to send one text message a day. Yesterday, he wrote to his family: "Ti'hi'yu chazakim. Ani ohev otchem," "Be strong. I love you guys." I closed my eyes and thought about this boy as we recited chapter 22, "For dogs have surrounded me; a pack of evildoers has enclosed me..." Later I looked up this verse and discovered that one commentary explains: "dogs" refers to "frenzied mobs comprised of base people." How prescient, potent and relevant King David's words are so many thousands of years after he wrote them.
We continue to pray on behalf of the IDF and am Yisrael that, in the words of King David, "G-d will protect you from every evil; He will guard your soul... from this time and forever."
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