Poem: Israel Under Attack (In honor of the victims of 10/7 and their families)

Trigger warning: The subject matter of this poem is very heavy, and imagery at times graphic, but it is important to bear witness to the horrors of that day as they were.

The sun rose this morning

Thought it'd be a restful Shabbos

But I've heard alarms this morning

And flashes in the sky

I heard the sirens wailing

And my phone was flashing

Red alert! Red alert!

“Do not be silent O G-d”

“Do not hold thy peace or be still O G-d”

“For thine enemies make a tumult”

I thought I heard some shouting

Panicked cries as the music died

And then the insistent sound of shooting

As it dawned on me that war had begun

The year of sorrow had begun

“Do not be silent O G-d”

“Do not hold thy peace or be still O G-d”

“For thine enemies make a tumult”

The killers flew in like locusts from the sky

Demons devoid of mercy and humanity

Beaming with glee as they burned a baby

Shouting in triumph watching a grandma die

Laughing as they lobbed a grenade into a family

Destroying the innocence of children for sport

“Do not be silent O G-d”

“Do not hold thy peace or be still O G-d”

“For thine enemies make a tumult”

I saw the land writhing in agony

A family burning in a final embrace

A dying son murmuring “I love you” to his mother

A little girl shot as she cried for her father

People ripped away to hell on earth

The blood of innocents flooding the fields

Parts of bodies strewn in the streets

Charred faces frozen in terror

“Do not be silent O G-d”

“Do not hold thy peace or be still O G-d”

“For thine enemies make a tumult”

Terrorists invaded in their thousands

Leaving death and destruction in their wake

But I saw our boys and girls fight back

And they live on through their sacrifice

They're the best of the children of Israel

The fiercest of the lions of Judah

 “Do not be silent O G-d”

“Do not hold thy peace or be still O G-d”

“For thine enemies make a tumult”

Then there was deathly silence

Just the stillness of the dead

All that was left was worlds torn apart

Just a void where there once was joy

Just existence when there once was life

A black hole of despair

“Do not be silent O G-d”

“Do not hold thy peace or be still O G-d”

“For thine enemies make a tumult”

A year's gone by

But it's still October 7th 

What hurts most is the betrayal

The hostility of those I thought my friends

Why am I wrong for fighting back?

Why am I bad for fighting back?

What did I do to deserve this?!

“Do not be silent O G-d”

“Do not hold thy peace or be still O G-d”

“For thine enemies make a tumult”

May the Lord Hashem see and avenge

Am Yisrael Chai

NOTE: The chorus is a quote from Psalm 83