Date: 2007-04-24 04:33 Subject: Remembering... Security: Public In my heart: thankful

Today was Yom HaZikaron. Israel's Memorial Day.
It's not like in America where Memorial Day means a day off work to have a BBQ with friends and drink on a sail boat. That's how I remember Memorial Day. A long weekend. A lot of alcohol. Meat on a grill. People happy to have a day off. Big sales at the local mall.

It's weird to think about it now.
Kind of sickening to me.

I can't imagine why any country would observe a holiday in any way other than the way Israel does it. And I never felt connected to it as much as I did this year...my first Memorial Day where I actually have someone to think about. Someone who lost his life...fighting in a war so that I could live here in peace. It makes my stomach hurt.

It's hard to explain to someone who has never been in Israel to witness the siren. In this crazy country where people are always in a hurry and everyone is always talking to everyone else. We all stop. Literally. Stop in our tracks. And we remember.

I remember last year when I heard the siren go off for Yom HaShoah. I was alone in my apartment and I went out onto my balcony and watched the people in the street. I cried a bit and then shared my thoughts with another new immigrant who happened to be online when the siren finished. There's something indescribable about being here in Israel when that siren goes off. We sound it for Holocaust Remembrance day (which was last week) and again for Memorial Day.

And it always made me cry.
Much like Israel's national anthem always made me cry...even when I heard it as a small child...before I knew what the words meant.


And I thought about that.
Last night.
When I heard the sirens and stood in silence with thousands of people in the middle of Rabin Square in the center of Tel Aviv.
I thought about how I never cried when I heard the US national anthem.
Never.
But I always cried for Israel.
I remember being in 3rd or 4th grade and singing the anthem in Sunday School. I got choked up and looked around to see that no one else in my class was really feeling emotional. I wasn't even sure where Israel was on a map...and I may not have even known WHAT I was singing...that it was a national anthem at all. But I fought back tears.

And now they flow freely.
With the sirens.
At the anthem.
Every. Single. Time.

And it's so weird to think about this past year.
Yom Ha'Atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) started this evening. Last year on this night, I ran into you for the first time since I'd gotten to Israel. And you smiled. And I smiled. And a full calendar year later...all I have is the memory of your beautiful face.

I miss you, Ben.
All I've thought about is you.
And last night I cried for you.
And I felt comfort as I stood there amongst the thousands.
Because I knew that everyone around me was remembering you.
And the rest of them.
Everyone who has fallen...in order that we can stand...here...in Israel.

And I cried again for you today.
And I'll remember you forever.

May their memories be for a blessing.

This video puts a face with each name of each soldier who fell in the war last summer...including my friend, Ben (סמ"ר בן סלע ז"ל).

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